The Russian businessman who appeared to criticize the Ukraine war dies in the fall from a hotel window

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A Russian businessman who criticized President Vladimir Putin has died after falling from a third-floor window at an Indian hotel, just days after the death of a friend on the same flight.

Pavel Antoff was visiting Odisha, an eastern state on the Bay of Bengal, and had just celebrated his 65th birthday at the hotel. His friend Vladimir Budanov died of a heart attack during the festivities.

The local millionaire and politician was a member of the United Russia party of the Russian parliament, which was previously headed by Putin.

Last June, Antov was forced to deny criticism of the war in Ukraine after a message appeared on his WhatsApp account.

Antoff’s death at Hotel Sai International in Rayagada joins a string of other unexplained deaths of Russian businessmen since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, many of whom have been critical of the conflict.

Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency reported that the sausage tycoon fell from a window at a hotel in the city of Rayagada on Sunday. Odisha Superintendent of Police Vivekananda Sharma said Budanov was found to have suffered a stroke two days earlier, while his friend Mr Antov “got into a posthumous depression and also died” in the fall.

The Russian consul in Kolkata told Tass that the police did not see a “criminal element in these tragic events”, while a tour guide suggested that Mr. Budanov may have “consumed a lot of alcohol because he had alcohol bottles”.

Antov is the founder of the Standard meat processing plant in Vladimir, and in 2019 Forbes estimated his fortune at $140m (£118m).

The multimillionaire was forced to refute rumors of his criticism of the invasion of Russia after he appeared to be responding to an attack on an apartment complex in the Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv. As a result of the bombing, a man was killed and his seven-year-old daughter and her mother were seriously injured.

“It is very difficult to call all this anything but terrorism,” a WhatsApp message on Mr. Antove’s account read, after describing how the family was pulled from the rubble.

The message was deleted and the Russian lawmaker wrote on social media that he was a supporter of the president, a “patriot of my country” and supported the war on Ukraine.

He insisted that the WhatsApp message came from someone who strongly disagreed with him on the “special military operation in Ukraine”. He said it was accidentally posted on his messenger and it was a very annoying misunderstanding.

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