Podcasts · True Crime · Society & Culture

SAD OLIGARCH

Cool Zone Media and H11

28 episodes · in order

RICH RUSSIANS KEEP DYING IN MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES Since January 2022, dozens of Russia's wealthiest oligarchs and power brokers have died suddenly. One was poisoned with frog venom. Two killed their whole families. Several fell out of high windows. Most of the deaths are suspicious. Russia says they're coincidental suicides—that the deceased were simply depressed. We don't think so... Sad Oligarch is an investigative podcast series that looks into the strange deaths of the Russian elite, unravelling a dark tale of Kremlin corruption and Putin's political dictatorship across the world. This is season two—Russian oligarchs are still dying and things have gotten even weirder...

Episodes

  1. A Family Annihilation in Moscow

    · 32 min · S1 E1

    On March 23rd 2022, affluent Russian businessman Vasily Melnikov was found dead alongside his family in their upscale Moscow apartment. They’d all been stabbed to death: Vasily, his wife, and their two sons aged 4 and…

  2. A Double Suicide at Gazprom's Nest

    · 28 min · S1 E2

    One day after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a Russian Gazprom executive hanged himself in the garage of his villa in the affluent village of Leninskoye. As police started to investigate the scene, security…

  3. An Oil Baron’s Frog Venom Heart Attack

    · 32 min · S1 E3

    In May 2022 a Russian billionaire engaged in a shamanic ritual in a bid to help cure his hangover and spiralling alcoholism. During the ritual, frog venom was injected into his blood stream. He soon died of a heart…

  4. Axe Family Murder at the Holiday Villa

    · 32 min · S1 E4

    On April 19th 2022, a Russian tycoon was found hanging from a railing inside his Spanish holiday villa. His wife and daughter were also found dead. They’d been hacked to death with an axe. The Spanish police ruled the…

  5. A Business Assassination with a Non-lethal Firearm

    · 30 min · S1 E5

    As Gazprom linked businessman Yury Voronov took a break at his cottage mansion, a gunman snuck through the trees and broke into his home. Voronov was shot at several times before a bullet struck him in the head. He was…

  6. A Rich Scientist Falls Down Some Stairs

    · 31 min · S1 E6

    In September 2022 the former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute fell down some stairs at work and died instantly. Why is this suspicious? To clarify that we have to ask two questions… How does the head of a…

  7. An Oil Magnate Jumps Out a Hospital Window

    · 35 min · S1 E7

    A checkup at the hospital seems an unlikely place for a suicide, but when a multil-million dollar Russian oil magnate had to get his heart checked, that's exactly what happened. A man worth half a billion dollars, with…

  8. The Nightclub Owner Who Fell Out a Window in Washington, DC

    · 29 min · S1 E8

    What does a Latvian-born nightclub owner have to do with you Russian oil and gas, Mitt Romney, and Donald Trump? More than you’d expect… Sadly we can’t ask him directly, as the man in question fell out the window of…

  9. The Death of a Fake Pentagon Analyst

    · 26 min · S1 E9

    In part two of our look into the bizarre circumstances surrounding the death of Latvian born Russian-American businessman Dan Rapoport, we expose his alter-ego. The fake Pentagon analyst Rapoport pretended to be caused…

  10. DC Freemasons & Russian Psyops

    · 20 min · S1 E10

    In the conclusion to the Dan Rapoport subplot, we discover how a Russian gossip blogger managed to break the story of his death and why a DC Freemason lodge is affiliated with his alter-ego. See…

  11. Rich Russians Keep Dying

    · 35 min · S1 E11

    In the penultimate episode of the series, Jake and Sergiy discuss the many mysterious Russian billionaire and millionaire deaths that have occurred since Sad Oligarch launched just three months ago. Several dark…

  12. Part One: A War Criminal Oligarch Is Shot Out of the Sky

    · 27 min · S1 E12

    In what will be a two-part final episode of Sad Oligarch, we take a deep dive into the violent life and violent death of Yevgeny Prigozhin—an oligarch, a war criminal, and the head of Kremlin backed private military…

  13. Part Two: A War Criminal Oligarch Is Shot Out of the Sky

    · 34 min · S1 E13

    In the finale of Sad Oligarch we look into the final weeks of Prigozhin's life and explain how his violent death casts the mysterious deaths we've looked into in a new light. We also take a more direct approach in…

  14. Introducing: Away Days Podcast - A Cold Day for Violence

    · 27 min

    Hi, Sad Oligarch fans! We want to share a new show, Away Days: Reporting from the Underbelly. Away Days Podcast is an episodic documentary series focused on unreported stories from the fringes of society. We’re…

  15. Introducing: Away Days Podcast - No Rules on the Riviera

    · 28 min

    Hi, Sad Oligarch fans! We want to share a new show, Away Days: Reporting from the Underbelly. Away Days Podcast is an episodic documentary series focused on unreported stories from the fringes of society. We’re…

  16. Introducing: SAD OLIGARCH Season 2

    · 2:59 · Trailer

    Since January 2022, dozens of Russia's wealthiest oligarchs and power brokers have died suddenly. One was poisoned with frog venom. Two killed their whole families. Several fell out of high windows. Most of the deaths…

  17. The Siberian Heart Attack

    · 32 min · S2 E1

    Deep in the Siberian peninsula, a corrupt politician falls out of the window of his home and hits the ground hard. Eyewitnesses describe the scene, explaining how he plummeted to the concrete and died. By the time the…

  18. The Kursk Raid Suicide

    · 37 min · S2 E2

    Russian oligarch Roman Starovoyt is having a very bad day. He’s the Minister of Transport, a prestigious position in Putin’s regime. Well, he was the Minister of Transport. Starovoyt has just been fired for allegedly…

  19. The Rocket Scientist's Poison Mushroom

    · 34 min · S2 E3

    Russian rocket scientist Vitaly Melnikov has been picking wild mushrooms his whole life. Somehow though, at 77-years-old, he picks a bad one and eats it up. This kills him. His body shuts down and he's entered the…

  20. Kaliningrad’s Decapitated Entrepreneur

    · 35 min · S2 E4

    The dead body of Alexey Sinitsyn is laid out under a bridge in Russia’s European exclave, Kaliningrad. It is missing one very vital component—the head. This local CEO has somehow ended up decapitated. A nylon tow rope…

  21. Hanged in a Secret Nuclear City

    · 35 min · S2 E5

    Senior accountant Evgeny Postrigan hangs himself in the garage of his home in the closed city of Zheleznogorsk. This is a place shrouded in secrecy, where weapons grade plutonium and military satellites are produced.…

  22. An Uphill Battle to the Kremlin

    · 41 min · S2 E6

    We’re halfway through season 2, so this episode is an interlude of sorts. As you can probably imagine, the work that goes into this project is massive. We’re fighting an uphill battle against Kremlin state media. FSB…

  23. Hanged with Hands Bound

    · 33 min · S2 E7

    Municipal lawmaker Vitaly Kapustin is found hanged in a tall tree using a cable attached to his car. The police rule it a suicide, that is until an eyewitness makes a statement saying Kapustin’s hands were tied behind…

  24. Drowned in Success

    · 31 min · S2 E8

    Russian financier Georgy Chibisov is partying on a yacht on the Moscow River. At some point in the night he steps out for a breather. It’s the last one he’ll ever take. Georgy falls into the water and drowns. But did…

  25. The Tycoon in a Gulag (Part One)

    · 28 min · S2 E9

    Multimillionaire businessman Igor Kotelnikov is used to the high life: fancy cars, big houses, fine dining. He’s lived a life of luxury, which is why it’s hit him so hard to be sent to a pre-trial detention centre in…

  26. The Tycoon in a Gulag (Part Two)

    · 32 min · S2 E10

    To understand what was truly going on at the heart of the embezzlement ring Igor Kotelnikov was part of, we must understand the conditions of the jail he was held in… Jake Hanrahan's projects: www.hanrahan.tv See…

  27. Secret Deaths at Russia’s Oil Corporation

    · 31 min · S2 E11

    Listeners of Season One will likely remember Lukoil, the Russian energy conglomerate with one foot in the regime and another in international commerce. There are half a dozen mysterious deaths linked to Lukoil, and…

  28. A Fired Reporter Falls Out a Window

    · 29 min · S2 E12

    Exiled Russian journalist Yevgeny Safranov is extremely stressed out. Inside his Paris apartment he paces up and down, furious that all his devices have been hacked. His phone, his government ID, his social…

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