Alexey Sinitsyn, the CEO of Uralkali, a Russian/Belarusian producer of potash fertilizer, has been killed and his body dumped near Kaliningrad. In The New York Sun, Joseph Curl points out that this is one of many Russian oligarchs who have died suspiciously. Who is killing these powerful Russians? Could it be Ukrainian assassins, or could it be the Russian government itself, purging undesirables? Curl writes:

The CEO of one of Russia’s largest potash producers, Alexey Sinitsyn, was found dead near Kaliningrad Monday, the latest among an eye-popping number of high-profile Russian executives, officials, and industry leaders who have died under mysterious and often violent circumstances since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti, citing a law enforcement source, said Sinitsyn’s decapitated body was found under a bridge with a tow rope attached to it. His death is being investigated by Russian authorities, along with many of the 19 — and counting — cases of unexpected fatalities that have been officially labeled as suicides, accidents, or unresolved murder-suicides.

Last month, the chairman of the board, Dmitry Osipov, of a major potash producer, Uralkali, and the founder, Mikhail Kenin, of a real estate developer, Samolet, both died. The causes of the men’s deaths have not been disclosed.

The unusual pattern sweeping through Russia’s business community, particularly among those linked to the country’s oil and gas giants like Lukoil, Gazprom, and Transneft, often involves defenestration. The vice president, Andrei Badalov, of Russia’s largest state-controlled pipeline company, Transneft, died in July after falling from the window of his Moscow apartment. The state news agency TASS reported the preliminary cause of death was suicide.

Read more here.