‘Hitman’ probe after Russian billionaire is run over and killed
A RUSSIAN billionaire has died after being run over as he walked his dog near his £5million Surrey mansion.
A business associate hinted Dmitry Obretetsky, 49, may have been targeted, the latest of at least four ex
Soviet emigres who died suspiciously, all in the same area since 2008.
The father-of-three was knocked down as he crossed a busy road in Oxshott on a Monday afternoon in November. His dog also died.
The vehicle which struck them is then believed to have collided with two others.
Obretetsky, a chemicals magnate, was on life support in a coma for five days before dying on Saturday. His colleague Pavel Borovkov said: “You know, people drive cars very carefully in Britain. I don’t exclude that he was specially knocked down.”
A Surrey Police spokesman said: “We are continuing to investigate.”
Obretetsky made his fortune in Volgograd after the fall of the Soviet Union before moving to Britain with his wife and children.
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Mr Borovkov said he created “one of the most civilised and Europeanlike companies in our country”.
He added: “Dmitry was a man of diverse interests, he did not focus only on business.
“We remember how at the famous quarter-final of the Euro 2008 football tournament he proudly, completely alone in a crowd of Dutch fans, held a large Russian flag with the inscription Volgograd. He loved contemporary music – hard rock – and was a fan of Ozzy Osbourne.”
Obretetsky lived in a gated mansion where neighbours include exEngland football captain John Terry and tennis star Andy Murray. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has a property nearby but it is not known if he and the football fan knew each other.
Obretetsky’s demise is the latest in a series of mysterious deaths of high profile exiles.
Georgian politician and businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili died aged just 52 at his estate near Leatherhead in 2008. Tycoon Alexander
Perepilichny died aged 44 after collapsing while jogging near his Weybridge home. And Boris Berezovsky, 67, was found apparently hanged in 2013.
Then last year former Russian airline executive Nikolai Glushkov, 68, a rival of President Vladimir Putin, was found dead of apparent strangulation at his home in New Malden.
Obretetsky is not known to have expressed any criticism of Putin.
Meanwhile Germany has kicked out two Russian diplomats after the assassination of a Chechen separatist in a Berlin park. Moscow, accused of refusing to cooperate over the incident, has described the move as “unfriendly and unfounded”.
However, German prosecutors say they have “sufficient evidence” that the Kremlin or the Chechen regime sanctioned the shooting of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, 40.