Anatoly Gershchenko was the former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute, according to reports in Russia he slipped and fell down a flight of stairs at the headquarters of the institute, which serves as one of Russia’s leading scientific research institutes for aerospace technology. His death comes less than two weeks after a Russian energy official fell from a boat. More than a dozen senior Russian officials have died under mysterious circumstances this year
Another senior Russian official has inexplicably died as the death toll among Russia’s elite continues to climb.
According to reports, Anatoly Gershchenko, former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) slipped and fell down a flight of stairs this morning at the headquarters in the Russian capital. “On September 21, 2022, Anatoly Nikolaevich Gershchenko, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Advisor to the Rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute, died as a result of an accident,” the spokesperson of the Russian Communications Company said.
It was also reported that “the staff of the Aviation Institute in Moscow express their condolences to the family and friends of Anatoly Nikolaevich. This is a huge loss for the MAI and the scientific and pedagogical community.” MAI is one of the leading scientific research universities in Russia, responsible for the development of aerospace technology and closely related to Putin’s Ministry of Defense.
Top Russian aviation scientist dies in ‘mysterious’ circumstances after ‘falling down several flights of stairs’ https://t.co/b55kQ5zUYK
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) September 21, 2022
Gershchenko, 73, worked a lifetime with the institute, studying at university as an engineer before moving up to run the institute for eight years, the Daily Mail reported. He received the Order of Contribution to the Motherland of Russia, and was a distinguished professor with more than 50 scientific publications, and remained an influential consultant after his retirement in 2015.
His suspicious death comes less than two weeks after Vladimir Putin’s man to develop Russia’s vast Arctic resources ‘fell overboard’ while sailing off the country’s Pacific coast. Ivan Pechorin, 39, was CEO of Putin’s Far East and Arctic Development Company, and recently attended a major Kremlin-hosted conference in Vladivostok.
The two are the latest in a long line of senior executives from Russia’s energy, technology and finance sectors linked to the Kremlin who have died under suspicious circumstances in recent months.