Guardian is reporting the death of former Aeroflot director Nikolai Glushkov. Glushkov, friend of the late Boris Berezovsky, was found dead in his home. Cause has not been announced.
Glushkov once headed the state airline Aeroflot, which he claimed was a massive money-launderer for Putin allies and “cash cow” for financing Russian intelligence operations.
Glushkov and Berezovsky were both major shareholders in the Swiss airline Andava. In 1999, they were imprisoned, accused of embezzling Aeoflot money and laundering it through Andava. Glushkov escaped and fled to the UK, where he was granted political asylum in 2011.
Glushkov asserted that he was on a short hit list of Russian exiles in Britain, and maintained that Berezovsky’s death, ruled a suicide, was nothing of the sort.
Speaking to the Guardian Glushkov said he was extremely sceptical that Berezovsky who was found hanged in a bathroom had died of natural causes. “I’m definite Boris was killed. I have quite different information from what is being published in the media,” he said.
He noted that a large number of Russian exiles including Berezovsky, and Berezovsky’s close friend Alexander Litvinenko, had died under mysterious circumstances. “Boris was strangled. Either he did it himself or with the help of someone. [But] I don’t believe it was suicide,” Glushkov said.
He added: “Too many deaths [of Russian emigres] have been happening.”
More details to follow, but, coming on the heels of the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter last week, skepticism is warranted.
(Aside: Russia has demanded a sample of the nerve agent used in the Skripal attack before responding to PM May’s demand for explanation. I suggest she offer Mr. Putin a taste test.)