Eva Deschamps / March 2, 2023
A former KGB spy in Belgium, who had a Belgian passport, was found dead in strange circumstances.
Vyacheslav Rovneiko, a former Russian spy and oil tycoon, was found dead in his Moscow home at the age of 59 under mysterious circumstances. His death is considered "violent" by the Russian authorities. An investigation is underway. Some believe that his death could be related to his business activities or his past as a spy.
Like Putin, Rovneiko worked for the KGB before changing course. He became a venture capitalist and chairman of the board of Rostec, a Russian holding company specializing in defense and high-tech technologies.
Vyacheslav Rovneiko is said to have worked for the KGB... in Belgium, during the Cold War, alongside Sergei Naryshkin, currently head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. He was also close to the billionaire Gennady Timchenko, considered one of Putin's most loyal oligarchs. In addition, he founded Urals Energy in 2000 with his former business partner Leonid Dyachenko, whose wife at the time, Tatyana, was the daughter of Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Rovneiko had very close ties to Belgium, a country he knew well from his work as a spy. He was also the owner of the Belgian oil trading company Nafta. In 2006, he would have held a Belgian passport!
Rovneiko's death joins a long list of Kremlin figures who have died under mysterious circumstances in recent years. Since the beginning of 2022, dozens of Russian businessmen have been found dead in unexplained circumstances.