![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/755498eb0b8e3641c3001f2eb4f61e451.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Indian police are investigating the sudden death of a wealthy Russian politician who reportedly criticised the Ukraine war as well as the unexpected death of one of his travelling companions, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The body of Pavel Antov, 65, was found on Saturday in a pool of blood outside his lodgings at a luxury hotel in the eastern state of Odisha, where he was on holiday with three other Russian nationals.
\nThe sausage tycoon died two days after another member of the travel party, Vladimir Bidenov, was found unconscious after suffering an apparent heart attack at the same hotel in Odisha\u2019s southern district of Rayagada and could not be revived.<\/p>\n
Police on Tuesday said they were reviewing security camera footage, questioning hotel staff and waiting on autopsy reports but so far there was no sign of foul play.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll possible angles as regards to the deaths of two Russian nationals are being verified,\u201d regional police chief Rajesh Pandit told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n
Bidenov\u2019s death had likely been caused by binge drinking and a possible drug overdose, he said.
\n\u201cSo far, it seems that Antov accidentally fell from the hotel terrace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was probably disturbed by the death of his friend and went to the hotel terrace and likely fell to his death from there,\u201d the police chief said.<\/p>\n
The officer said Antov and his friends had arrived in Odisha this month and visited several locations before arriving at their hotel in Rayagada at the start of last week.<\/p>\n
Two local travel agents accompanying the party have also been questioned along with the other two Russian members of the holiday group.
\nOdisha police said in a statement the police chief \u201chas ordered CID (Criminal Investigation Department) to take over the inquiry\u201d into the two deaths.
\nAntov was a politician in Vladimir, a city 150km (90 miles) east of Moscow where his meat-processing company is located.<\/p>\n
Antov\u2019s death was announced in Russia by the deputy head of the Vladimir Legislative Assembly, Vyacheslav Kartukhin, on Telegram.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result of tragic circumstances, our colleague, a successful entrepreneur, and philanthropist Pavel Genrihovich Antov, passed away,\u201d his post said. \u201cOn behalf of the deputies of the United Russia faction, I express my deep condolences to the family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antov had been a member of the regional parliament since 2018 and represented President Vladimir Putin\u2019s United Russia party.<\/p>\n
Before entering politics, he founded the Vladimirsky Standart company. In 2019, he was ranked the richest of all parliamentarians and senior officials in the country by the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.
\nIn June, Russian media published a WhatsApp message attributed to Antov that called a Kremlin missile bombardment of Ukraine \u201cterrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n
Antov used the Russian social media network VK to deny writing the message, insisting that he supported Russia\u2019s \u201cspecial military operation\u201d in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indian police are investigating the sudden death of a wealthy Russian politician who reportedly criticised the Ukraine war as well as the unexpected death of one of his travelling companions, authorities said. The body of Pavel Antov, 65, was found on Saturday in a pool of blood outside his lodgings at a luxury hotel in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":183958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183957"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183959,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183957\/revisions\/183959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}