Leonid Shulman

Head of Gazprom's transport service, found dead with stab wounds to his wrists in his country house bathroom in January 2022 — the first in a wave of suspicious Russian energy executive deaths that year.

Field	Details
Full Name	Leonid Shulman
Born	c. 1962
Died	January 30, 2022
Age at Death	60
Location of Death	Country house, Leningrad Oblast, Russia
Cause of Death	Stab wounds to wrists
Official Ruling	Suicide
Alleged Intelligence Connection	FSB / Russian state suspected — part of 2022 energy executive death wave
Category	Banker / Financier

Assessment: SUSPICIOUS

Shulman was the first in what became a wave of at least eight suspicious deaths of Russian energy executives in 2022. He was found dead in his bathroom with stab wounds to his wrists, and a note was found nearby in which he reportedly complained of pain from a broken leg. He was under investigation for fraud related to Gazprom's vehicle fleet. The circumstances — a senior executive at Russia's most politically connected energy company, under internal investigation, dying violently just weeks before the Ukraine invasion — raise significant questions, especially when viewed as the beginning of an unprecedented pattern.

Circumstances of Death

On January 30, 2022, Shulman was found dead in the bathroom of his country house in the Leningrad region (the area surrounding St. Petersburg). He had stab wounds on his wrists. A note was found beside his body in which he reportedly complained about pain from a broken leg.

Russian authorities ruled the death a suicide. However, the manner of death — stab wounds rather than slashes — is an unusual method of self-harm. Slashing the wrists is common in suicide attempts, but stabbing wounds to the wrists are forensically unusual and raise questions about whether another party may have been involved. No independent autopsy results have been made public, and the investigation was closed quickly with the suicide ruling.

The death occurred less than four weeks before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 — a period when Russian intelligence services were reportedly conducting sweeping internal security operations to ensure loyalty and eliminate potential leaks within Russia's energy and military-industrial establishment.

Background

At the time of his death, Shulman was the head of Gazprom Invest's transport service, responsible for managing the vehicle fleet of Gazprom's investment arm. He was a 60-year-old senior executive at Russia's state-controlled energy giant.

Gazprom's internal security units had reportedly been investigating Shulman for alleged fraud related to upgrading the company's vehicle fleet. According to investigative reporting by Novaya Gazeta, some of the suspicious deaths may have been connected to large-scale accounting fraud by Gazprom executives who had allegedly funneled money to a network of businesses owned by friends and family members with ties to the FSB and Russian military. Shulman's investigation was ongoing at the time of his death, potentially giving him dangerous knowledge about how Kremlin-connected corruption operated within the company.

The 2022 Wave of Russian Executive Deaths

Shulman's death marked the beginning of what CNN, CNBC, and other outlets documented as an unprecedented wave of suspicious deaths among Russian energy executives. The pattern is striking in its scale and consistency:

1. Leonid Shulman (January 30, 2022) — Gazprom Invest transport chief, stab wounds to wrists, ruled suicide
2. Alexander Tyulakov (February 25, 2022) — Gazprom financial executive, found hanged in his garage, one day after the invasion began
3. Vladislav Avayev (April 18, 2022) — Former Gazprombank vice president, found dead in Moscow apartment with wife and daughter, ruled murder-suicide
4. Sergei Protosenya (April 19, 2022) — Former Novatek executive, found hanged in Spain; wife and daughter found dead inside the home
5. Alexander Subbotin (May 2022) — Former Lukoil board member, found dead in a shaman's basement, allegedly from toad venom "treatment"
6. Yuri Voronov (July 2022) — Head of a transport company connected to Gazprom, found dead with a gunshot wound in his pool
7. Ivan Pechorin (September 2022) — Aviation executive managing Russia's Far East development projects, fell off a boat
8. Ravil Maganov (September 1, 2022) — Chairman of Lukoil, fell from a sixth-floor hospital window; Lukoil's board had issued a rare public statement calling for an end to the Ukraine war

The Meduza investigation "They don't only fall out of windows" documented at least 50 suspicious deaths among Russian business figures since Shulman's death. The Warsaw Institute described these as "a wave of mystery suicides" with common patterns: connection to state energy companies, proximity to the Ukraine war, and unconvincing official explanations.

Intelligence Connections

• Gazprom is effectively controlled by the Russian state and has deep ties to the Kremlin and FSB
• Internal investigations at Gazprom are reportedly coordinated with or conducted by FSB-connected security units
• His death was the first in a pattern that eventually included more than a dozen suspicious Russian executive deaths in 2022
• The timing — weeks before the Ukraine invasion — suggests possible connection to pre-war internal security operations designed to ensure the loyalty of Russia's energy sector
• According to Novaya Gazeta reporting, some deaths may be connected to FSB-linked financial fraud within Gazprom's corporate structure
• The pattern of deaths — suicides, falls from windows, murder-suicides — mirrors methods historically associated with Russian intelligence operations

Why This Death Raises Questions

• He was the first of at least eight Russian energy executives to die under suspicious circumstances in 2022
• Stab wounds to the wrists are an unusual method of suicide — slashing is more common in self-harm; stabbing suggests possible staging
• He was under internal investigation for fraud at Gazprom, potentially giving him dangerous knowledge about corporate corruption linked to the FSB
• The death occurred weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, during a period of extreme internal tension and security crackdowns
• The suicide note's content — complaining about pain from a broken leg — seems incongruent with the decision to end one's life by stabbing
• No independent investigation was conducted, and the case was closed rapidly
• The subsequent wave of executive deaths suggests a systematic pattern rather than isolated incidents
• Two of the deaths (Avayev and Protosenya) involved the apparent killing of wives and daughters before the executive's own death — an extremely unusual pattern for genuine murder-suicides
• Ravil Maganov's death came after Lukoil's board publicly opposed the Ukraine war, suggesting a connection to political dissent within the energy sector

Key Quotes

The Warsaw Institute described the deaths as "a wave of mystery suicides of Russian Gazprom executives" that "seem somewhat suspicious."

Meduza's investigation noted that "since Shulman's death, there have been at least 50 deaths that could be classified as suspicious" among Russian business figures.

CNN reported that "at least eight prominent Russian businessmen have died by suicide or unexplained accidents" in the first eight months of 2022, with six connected to Russia's two largest energy companies.

See Also

• Alexander Tyulakov — Gazprom director, found dead February 2022
• Ravil Maganov — Lukoil chairman, fell from hospital window September 2022
• Sergei Protosenya — Former Novatek head, found dead in Spain April 2022
• Boris Berezovsky — Russian oligarch found dead in his UK home in 2013
• Alexander Litvinenko — Former FSB officer poisoned with polonium in London

Other Shocking Stories

• Juan Jose Torres: Former president of Bolivia, kidnapped and executed in Buenos Aires. CIA-backed Operation Condor.
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• Ruth First: South African activist opened a letter bomb in Mozambique. Military intelligence confirmed. Assassin confessed.
• Daniel Pearl: Wall Street Journal reporter beheaded in Pakistan while investigating ISI links to Al-Qaeda.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Suspicious Russia-Related Deaths Since 2022
• Warsaw Institute — Wave of Mystery Suicides of Russian Gazprom Executives
• Grunge — The Suspicious Suicide of Russian Oligarch Leonid Shulman
• The Week — Why Do Russian Oil Bosses Keep Dying
• Meduza — They Don't Only Fall Out of Windows
• CNN — At Least Eight Russian Businessmen Have Died in Apparent Suicide or Accidents
• CNBC — Lukoil Chairman Ravil Maganov Is the 8th Russian Energy Executive to Die Suddenly
• Fortune — Deaths of 2 Russian Oligarchs Within 48 Hours

This information was built by Grok and Claude AI research.