Mystery deepens over oligarch’s wife as cause of death is unclear
Coroner may take another six weeks to establish what happened to ‘beautiful and healthy’ Irina Izmestieva
THE death of a 51-year-old Russian woman remains a mystery after a coroner revealed the cause was not yet known a month after her body was found at a £15 million mansion in west London.
Zuzanna Janica said Inner West London Coroner’s Office may take up to six weeks to conclude the cause of Irina Izmestieva’s death.
The mother-of-two’s personal assistant, Oxana Mason, said that friends and family were “all shocked” by the former director and film producer’s sudden death. In late November, Ms Mason said she was waiting to hear fom the coroner so that she could “organise the funeral” for her friend of more than 12 years.
“The coroner didn’t tell us anything so we are waiting for their report, there was only a quick phone call saying that they are still investigating ... that they are waiting for the result,” she said.
Ms Izmestieva had moved to the UK in 2007 after her husband Igor Izmestiev, a member of Russia’s parliament, was arrested and later sentenced to life imprisonment in his home country.
He was found guilty of leading a criminal gang and plotting several murders but has mantained his innocence.
The Metropolitan Police have said that Ms Izemstieva’s death is not being treated as suspicious.
But the time it is taking to determine the cause may fuel alarm given her husband’s predicament and concerns over other deaths of Russians exiled in the UK, including Alexander Perepilichnyy and Alexander Litvinenko.
Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a Russian businessman and exile living in London, urged MI5 to investigate her death at the time, claiming on Facebook that he suspected foul play. He was Ms Izmestieva’s neighbour between 2009 and 2013 and wrote on Facebook that she was “a very healthy person”.
In a statement, the Met said: “Passing police officers were flagged down on Friday, November 12 by a woman concerned for the welfare of an occupant at a residential address in Cottesmore Gardens W8. Officers gained entry and found a woman unresponsive.
“London Ambulance Service attended and the woman, aged in her 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene. The death is not being treated as suspicious. The coroner has been informed.”
This follows a series of mysterious deaths of Russian dissidents and exiles in the UK, including the case of Mr Perepilichnyy, a Russian whistleblower who died while jogging outside his home in Weybridge, Surrey, in 2012.
The coroner ruled that the millionaire exile died of natural causes – or sudden arrhythmic death syndrome – but added it was possible a “novel unknown substance” had been used to murder him. An inquest heard that the 44-yearold had vomited strange “greeny yellow” liquid after collapsing in the road within the high security gated community where he lived.
At the time, police blunders in the original investigation – such as crucial evidence being lost or disregarded – were blamed, as attempts to establish the truth about Mr Perepilichnyy’s death were hampered.
Additionally, the fatal poisoning of the Russian dissident Mr Litvinenko, a former KGB officer, in London in 2006 by two Russian agents was found by a public inquiry to have “probably” been sanctioned by Vladimir Putin.
There was also an assasination attempt using the deadly nerve agent, novichok, on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, when Russian military agents are believed to have smeared poison on his door handle.
The former Russian spy and his daughter survived, but a public inquiry has been launched into the death of Dawn Sturgess, who was unwittingly poisoned by the nerve agent and died.
Ms Mason said the coroner’s “investigation” will ultimately show what happened to Ms Izmestieva, but added that her “closest” friend’s untimely death was a “tragedy”, calling her “absolutely beautiful and healthy”.
While Ms Izmestieva’s husband of more than 25 years was convicted after he reportedly fell out with Murtaza Rakhimov, the governor of his native Bashkir region, Ms Mason has insisted that her friend’s death had “nothing to do” with him.
‘The coroner didn’t tell us anything so we are waiting for their report. There was only a quick phone call saying they are investigating’