After the oligarchs, Russian scientists also 'fall through the window'

These were mostly businessmen who acquired their hundreds of millions (and some even billions) of dollars thanks to good connections in the Kremlin, as well as with Vladimir Putin himself, and lucrative deals with the state itself. Yevgeny Prigozhin, long considered one of the most influential and richest people in Russia, and one of the closest associates of Putin himself, died recently in a still uninvestigated plane crash. According to most Russian media, Prigozhin had a fortune of over one billion dollars, as well as luxury real estate, cars and yachts in Russia and abroad.

 

Don't put your head in the reactor

In mid-summer 1978, at a secret Soviet research facility in the town of Protvino, near Moscow, everything was ready to test a new development of the largest cyclotron, a particle-accelerating reactor used for various advanced research in physics.

Anatolij Bugorski, one of the leading scientists at the Institute of Particle Physics, performed the final preparations and tests. The "U-70 Synchrotron", as the particle accelerator was called, had a power of almost 70 GeV (giga-electron volts), which was then among the most powerful in the world. Right before the start of the experiment, a system error alarm sounded. Bugorski has already encountered such problems, so he decided to personally go down to one of the parts of the reactor. When the scientist opened one of the complex instruments, and bent down to put it back in place, the room was illuminated by an extremely bright flash. It was immediately clear to Bugorski what had happened - the experiment had been started, but the security mechanisms had not activated. He received a "hit" in the head and part of the face with an energy beam of at least 60 GeV, which is equivalent to the radiation emission of almost 200,000 X-rays.

Bugorski finished the repair and went home after work, even though he knew what had happened to him. In the following months, he had numerous medical problems, but he still survived, although medical science considers it impossible. Soon, the KGB intelligence service became interested in this incident, suspecting that the scientists at the Institute were actually "foreign agents" with the aim of stopping or destroying Soviet scientific research.

 

Due to the secrecy of these researches, and of the plant itself, Bugorski never received the status of work disabled, although he submitted a request several times.

 

The mysterious sinking of the ship

That the Russian authorities "do not forgive" their scientists who want to "defect" to the West is also shown by new research into the tragedies of the ship "Estonia". This ship sank in September 1994, along with 852 passengers, on its way from Tallinn, Estonia to Stockholm, Sweden.

Although the official investigation determined at the time that it was a combination of several factors - weather, water currents and crew errors - new research casts doubt on this. Over the years, with the help of underwater robots, independent researchers have managed to record part of the hull of the "Estonia", where traces of the explosion can be seen.

It is also interesting that the site of the sinking is the subject of the "Estonia Ship Agreement" from 1995, which was signed by the Baltic countries and which prohibited any diving or analysis of the seabed near the wreck. It is even more interesting that the only non-Baltic signatory country is Great Britain, which had nothing to do with the incident at the time.

Over the years, former members of the KGB who defected to the USA claimed that there were also Russian citizens, military scientists, on "Estonia", who carried with them electronics and a computer for the "N-019" radar, which is used by the entire a number of Russian fighter planes.

 

Suspicious deaths of scientists

Vitaly Melnikov, one of the greatest Russian designers of rockets and satellites, died a few days ago from the effects of "poisonous mushroom" poisoning. Melnikov was also one of the main people in the company RSK Energija, which produces Russian rockets and spacecraft. He also worked on numerous projects for the Russian national space agency Roscosmos, as well as on international projects in space with the American agency NASA.

A few months ago, in June of this year, Grigory Klinishov, a nuclear physicist who worked on the Russian nuclear weapons program and who is one of the designers of the largest bomb "RDS-37", was found dead in his apartment in Moscow. The death was the result of suicide, and a farewell note was also found.

In May, the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Pyotr Kucherenko, died on a flight from Havana to Moscow, he fell ill. Although the plane landed immediately, the doctors could not determine the reason for Kucherenko's serious health condition, after which he died soon after.

In December last year, Aleksandar Buzakov, director of the shipyard in Saint Petersburg, also died. This shipyard is the oldest in Russia and specializes in the design and production of military ships and submarines.

The former head of the Roscosmos space agency, Dmitry Pavochka, died in January in his apartment in Moscow after a fire broke out. According to the investigators, the cause of the fire was a cigarette that fell on the carpet.

 

Anton Cherepenikov died suddenly at the beginning of July as a result of a heart attack, although he had never had heart problems before. Cherepenikov was well known in the world's technological as well as intelligence circles. He was one of the founders and president of the Citadel group of companies, the largest Russian manufacturer of electronics and equipment for electronic surveillance of telecommunications. This group also included other similar companies, such as Osnova Lab, Signatek and Tekhargos-MFI. Before the beginning of the Russian aggression, Citadel held 60 percent of the market for such equipment (Systems for Operations and Investigation Activities, SORM) in Russia, and after the beginning of the aggression more than 80 percent. Cherepenikov was a close associate of Vladimir Putin, as well as the leadership of the FSB. Before the beginning of the Russian aggression, Citadel managed to sell its equipment and software in the West, through several companies in Canada.