A coroner has ruled that Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov was unlawfully killed in his London home, with evidence suggesting third-party involvement and a staged suicide. The 68-year-old businessman, a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin, was found dead in New Malden, south-west London, in March 2018.
Senior coroner Chinyere Inyama concluded that Mr Glushkov died from strangulation, with injuries consistent with a neck-hold applied from behind. A pathology report noted a lack of defensive injuries, indicating no prolonged struggle. Paramedic Dominic Biel described the scene as 'suspicious', recalling his partner's warning not to touch anything because 'someone's killed him'.
Mr Glushkov fled Russia after being accused of fraud during his tenure as deputy director of Aeroflot and was granted political asylum in the UK in 2010. In 2017, a Russian court sentenced him in absentia to eight years for stealing £87m from the airline. His body was discovered by his daughter Natalia on the day he was due to appear in London's Commercial Court.
The death occurred a week after the Novichok poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism unit has renewed its appeal for information, having contacted over 1,800 witnesses and taken more than 420 statements. No arrests have been made, and a motive remains unclear.
Mr Glushkov was a close friend of oligarch Boris Berezovsky, another Putin critic found hanged at his Berkshire home in 2013, whose inquest recorded an open verdict.
