Another Russian Official Mysteriously Falls From Window to His Death
A federal judge in Russia was found dead after falling 12 stories from his apartment window according to local media reports.
The body of Artem Bartenev, 42, who served in the Kirovsky District Court in the city of Kazan, was found on Thursday morning near his property in the capital of the Russian republic of Tartarstan.
Bartenev, who was married with two daughters, had been appointed by decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 14, 2022 and handled administrative and civil cases.
He had been due to preside over a trial on the day he died, local news outlet Kazan 24 reported, and his wife had been walking their dog at the time of his death.
Artem Bartenev, a federal judge from the Russian republic of Tartarstan was found dead next to his apartment block. Local media reports said that the 42 year old had fallen 12 stories. .Gov
Russia's Investigative Committee, which Newsweek has contacted for comment, is investigating the circumstances of the death, it has been reported.
Bartenev has become the latest Russian official to die in what media reports have described as unusual or at least unexplained circumstances since the start of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, 2022.
On June 4, Yuri Demin, 62, who was the former head of the State Inspectorate for Road Safety for the Sverdlovsk region, died after falling from the second floor of his dacha (summer home) in the town of Sysert during construction work, according to Russian media outlet Tolk News.
In February, Marina Yankina, who headed the Russian defense ministry's financial support department, died aged 58 after falling from a window in St. Petersburg, according to local media reports. She had previously criticized the Kremlin for Russian losses in Ukraine.
Pavel Antov, a Russian politician who criticized Putin's invasion of Ukraine, was found dead after a fall from a window in India on December 25, 2022.
The body of Antov, who was a member of Putin's United Russia party, was found outside the Hotel Sai International in Rayagada in the Indian state of Odisha. His death came only two days after his friend, Vladimir Bidenov, was found dead in a room at the same hotel.
According to the BBC, Antov founded the Vladimir Standard meat processing plant and in 2019 Forbes estimated his fortune at some $140 million, topping Russia's rich list of lawmakers and civil servants.
Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, was found dead on September 1, 2022, after falling from a hospital window in Moscow.
And in May, Russia's Deputy Science Minister, Pyotr Kucherenko, 46, died after falling seriously ill on a flight to Moscow from Havana, where he had been on government business. His friend, the Russian journalist Roman Super told Newsweek that he had been critical of the war in Ukraine.
Source: Newsweek
