Russian Businessman Dmitry Zelenov Dies Under Mysterious Circumstances

Dmitry Zelenov, a Russian real estate tycoon, died while visiting friends in Antibes, a coastal city in France. According to French newspaper Var Matin, Mr Zelenov died after tumbling from a flight of stairs on December 9. He was having dinner with friends when Mr Zelenov suddenly became unwell, falling down a flight of stairs and suffering critical injuries, the outlet further said. He is the latest Russian business leader to die under mysterious circumstances. In September, Ravil Maganov, the chairman of oil company Lukoil, died after falling from a hospital window. Mr Maganov's company had opposed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The exact cause of Mr Zelenov's death is not known and the police have launched an investigation to determine it, Var Matin said in its report.

The businessman succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment at Hospital Pasteur in Nice.

The Daily Beast said that the 50-year-old had undergone vascular surgery for unspecified heart problems. Mr Zelenov was the former owner of Russian developer Don-Stroy, which constructed the 61-story Triumph Palace Tower in Moscow, one of the tallest residential structures in Europe, said the outlet.

Before suffering colossal losses in the past few years, Mr Zelenov's fortune was estimated to be $1.4 billion, according to Forbes.

Last month, Viktor Cherkesov, longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who later became an outspoken critic, died at the age of 72.

Mr Cherkesov was a former chief of the now-defunct State Drug Control Service (FKSN) and presidential envoy to the Northwestern Federal District.

Before him, former head of Moscow Aviation Institute Anatoly Gerashchenko, died after falling from stairs. The institute's press office called the 73-year-old's death "the result of an accident."

About two weeks before Mr Gerashchenko died, reports emerged that an executive appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to help oversee development in the Arctic was killed. Thirty-nine-year-old Ivan Pechorin took a strange fall off a moving boat off the Russian coast.