A former head of the Pravda publishing house, Vyacheslav Leontyev, was discovered dead outside his Moscow apartment building over the weekend, marking another suspicious death among prominent Russian figures since the country’s invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

Leontyev, 87, allegedly fell from his fifth-floor apartment window at western Moscow following what police sources described as a “nervous breakdown,” according to reports from Tass, Russia’s state news agency.

The deceased executive led the Pravda publishing house beginning in 1984, overseeing production of the Communist Party’s official newspaper during the final years of the Soviet Union.

Pravda, meaning “truth” in Russian, served as the ruling party’s primary publication until the Soviet Union’s collapse in December 1991. Following the transition, Leontyev continued his role as the organization was restructured and renamed Pressa, later becoming the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Pressa.

A Russian tabloid, Moskovsky Komsomolets, reports that personal difficulties may have contributed to Leontyev’s mental state. The publication claimed that his wife had been recently hospitalized following a fall, and that he experienced heart problems on the day of his death but declined his daughter’s offer to summon medical assistance. 

Andrey Malgin, an opposition journalist currently in exile who was acquainted with Leontyev, suggested the former publisher possessed significant wealth and insider knowledge. “In any case, he knew a lot about the [Communist] party’s money,” Mr. Malgin wrote on social media platforms.

Leontyev’s death adds to a growing list of approximately two dozen unexplained fatalities involving high-ranking Russian businessmen and officials since Moscow launched its full-scale military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.

Recent similar incidents include the July death of the transport minister, Roman Starovoit, who was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound just hours after the Kremlin announced his dismissal. Police ruled it a suicide, while unconfirmed media reports suggested he was under investigation for allegedly stealing more than one billion rubles — equivalent to about $12 million — allocated for Ukrainian border defense construction.

In another case last month, a former state property and customs official, Boris Avakyan, who faced corruption charges and potential imprisonment, reportedly killed himself after fleeing a St. Petersburg courtroom. Holding an Armenian passport, Avakyan fled to the Armenian consulate, where police later discovered his body in a restroom.

The same period saw the discovery of Alexey Sinitsyn’s headless remains beneath a bridge in Kaliningrad, Russia’s Baltic territory. The prominent business manager’s body was found with a car tow rope attached, leading police sources to suggest suicide.

While Russian authorities frequently write off these deaths as suicides or accidents, some analysts suggest a more sinister explanation. A Ukrainian military analyst and former security service officer, Ivan Stupak, said he believes Russia’s own security services are likely behind many of the deaths.

“They can pressure a person in one way or another,” Mr. Stupak told the Kyiv Independent. “It’s a well-known tactic — either you kill yourself, and your family is left in peace with what they have, or they start arrests, imprisonments, and leave everyone destitute.”