🇷🇺 Sergei Loyter, a top executive at Russia’s largest technology company, Yandex, has died under mysterious circumstances.
The wave of deaths among senior Russian managers and businessmen that began after the start of the war in Ukraine continues.
The 42-year-old Loyter drowned while fishing on the Volga River near Volgograd. He served as Yandex’s commercial director from 2022 to 2024 and most recently worked for Yango, the company’s international division.
His body was identified among three missing fishermen whose disappearance was reported at the end of last week. Along with Loyter, local developer Sergei Nazarov (whose body has still not been found) and the businessman’s personal driver, Igor Prokhorov, also drowned.
Prokhorov’s body was recovered first. Police stated that the deceased had injuries to his head.
Loyter has become at least the 20th senior executive to die under suspicious circumstances in Russia since the beginning of the war.
- In September last year, the headless body of the general director of a potash and magnesium salt mining company was found.
- In August, the chairman of the board of directors of Uralkali died.
- In 2023, Vyacheslav Rovneyko, director of the Interregional Fuel Union, and Igor Shkurko, deputy head of Yakutskenergo, were found dead.
- In 2024, Lukoil vice president Vitaly Robertus was found dead with signs of suicide.
- In 2025, Transneft vice president Andrei Badalov fell from a balcony.