Putin could have ordered Russian’s death in UK, claims lover
A FASHION designer who spent two nights with a wealthy Russian whistleblower before his death in Britain claims the millionaire may have been the victim of state-sponsored killers.
Alexander Perepilichnyy, 44, collapsed and died hours after returning to his Surrey home from a tryst with Elmira Medynska at a Paris hotel.
Ukrainian Miss Medynska, 27, said she had not been surprised to hear the married father-of-two, who had passed information to Swiss prosecutors, was dead.
‘ It happens to Russian people in London,’ she told BuzzFeed News. ‘He gave Russian information to Swiss and you can be killed for that.’
Mr Perepilichnyy’s mysterious death is at the centre of claims he was assassinated on the orders of Vladimir Putin or the Russian president’s inner circle.
The businessman had sought refuge in Britain after he was a key witness in a £150million tax fraud investigation involving corrupt Russian officials.
Security sources in the US and Paris are concerned police failed to get the bottom of the death.
One told BuzzFeed: ‘We strongly believe that Perepilichnyy was assassinated on direct orders from Putin or people close to him.’
Those who lost money in the fraud and Mr Perepilichnyy’s life insurers accuse Surrey Police of failing to properly investigate his death – and say he may have been murdered after a poisonous plant was slipped into a traditional sorrel soup he ate for lunch.
They claim tests identified a substance matching deadly plant gelsemium in his stomach – but a coroner has warned of ‘conspiracy theories’ during an ongoing inquest into the death.
One senior detective said police had found no evidence of poisoning or that Mr Perepilichnyy was in danger, adding: ‘We have to stick to the facts.’
Miss Medynska yesterday threw fresh light on the hours before Mr Perepilichnyy’s death on November 10, 2012.
The pair spent two nights at the five-star Le Bristol hotel before he returned home by Eurostar.
She said Mr Perepilichnyy’s hands had been shaking as he drank heavily and juggled a string of phone calls.
The couple shopped at Prada for shoes and handbags, but he was so distracted ‘ worrying, walking from side to side’ that he bought her Louboutins in the wrong size, Miss Medynska said.
She said she only learned of the death when his wife Tatiana emailed several days later and called her ‘bad words’.
Miss Medynska said authorities should have been asking where her lover’s money came from and whether he had any enemies. She said: ‘They didn’t think about this before and they didn’t do nothing to save him, so now they have only doubts and questions.’
Mr Perepilichnyy collapsed and died while jogging near his £3million mansion on a gated estate.
He had fled Moscow after lifting the lid on a massive fraud uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky, who subsequently died in prison.
Before his death, Mr Perepilichnyy had taken out life insurance worth £3.5million and applied for policies worth another £5million.
Lawyers for Legal & General, which faces a massive bill, want to know why police did not focus more attention on Russian crime gangs and the fraud.
‘Only doubts and questions’