Putin Ally’s Son Drops Dead at 35 in Bizarre Circumstances

The heir of top Putin crony Igor Sechin died suddenly at the age of 35 earlier this month and his death was apparently kept secret from the public.

Ivan Sechin, the son of Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, had been working at the oil giant alongside his father since 2014, and was awarded the For Merit to the Fatherland medal in 2015 by Vladimir Putin for his “many years of conscientious work.” He was 26 at the time.

The younger Sechin’s death was never officially announced; it was only discovered this week after Putin critic Leonid Nevzlin flagged on social media that Ivan Sechin had been added to the national registry of inheritance cases with a date of death on Feb. 5.

Read more at The Daily Beast.