September 13, 2023 • 33 mins
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 explaining what we think is going on...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists,
was poisoned, murdered his whole family.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Last year, more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in
the space of nine months. Many of the deaths are
suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach,
an investigation into these recently dead Russian billionaires. It's created
by me jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergey Slipchenko. Sad
(00:37):
Oligarch is a h eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio.
As the bodies of mangled PMC. Wagna Fights has piled
up on East Ukraine's blackmut frontline, progosion began to crack.
(01:00):
His men were getting decimated. Ukrainian drawing footage shows dozens
of mercenary corpses dotted around the smoldering ruins of their trenches,
burned out vehicles and bullet riddle bodies. The myth of PMC.
Wagner being an elite operator force was being debunked in
real time as these videos spread across social media. Throughout May,
(01:23):
Progosion released some footage of his own father.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Shah.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
In a now infamous video first posted to Telegram, he
angrily addresses the Russian military leadership. Progosion accused Sergei Shogu,
the Defense Minister, and Valeri Garrisimov, the Chief of General Staff,
withholding artillery ammunition from his fighters. He says, quote, that's
direct obstruction, plain and simple. It can be equated with
(01:57):
high treason and the battle for BAGHMUTI times more of
my guy has died than should have. Listen to me,
you slim. These are somebody's father's, somebody's sons, and the
skum who aren't given us the ammunition will be eating
their guts in hell with seventy percent short on ammo. Shogu, Garrisimov,
where's the fucking ammo? End quote? He was blaming them.
(02:21):
In another video, stood in front of the camera with
MPMC Wagner fighters surrounding him, Progosion appears increasingly frustrated. Several
more videos like this will be released, with Progosion exploding
in a fit of rage as he got more and
more daring in his criticism of the Russian state. This
culminated on June twenty four to twenty twenty three, the
(02:41):
beginning of the short lived Wagner Mutiny, footage of what
was allegedly a Russian military strike on Wagner positions inside
occupied areas of Ukraine was released via PMC. Wagner media
Progosian claimed that dozens of his men had been killed
by his fellow countrymen serving the Russian EMOD. Not a
single body is actually seen in any of this footage, though,
(03:05):
just random shots of ruined positions with gunfire heard amongst
the trees in the near distance. In fact, to this day,
there's been no evidence any Wagner fighters were killed in
this alleged friendly fire strike on their base, if it
even happened at all. Immediately, the Russian Ministry of Defense
released a statement saying quote all the messages and videos
(03:28):
spread on social media networks on behalf of progosing about
the alleged strike of the Russian Ministry of Defense against
the rear camps of the Wagner PMC are untrue and
are in information provocation. The Armed forces of the Russian
Federation continue to carry out combat tasks on the line
of contact with the AFU in the area of the
special military operation ends quote now if you don't already know,
(03:53):
the special military operation is what Russia has decided to
call its awful invasion of Ukraine. Now, whatever happened, it
served as the match that lit the fire on the
PMC Wagner mutiny. Progosin had had enough. It was time
to ride on Moscow. PMC Wagner fighters turned down armored
(04:13):
vehicles around, loaded their trucks with weapons, and drove over
the Ukrainian border back into Russia. By the evening, armed
Wagner fighters were seen on the streets of Russia's Rostov,
just over Ukraine's border. They were actually warmly welcomed by
the citizens there and pretty much the same with every
Russian town they go on to take. This was quite
(04:35):
shocking considering PMC Wagner is known worldwide and in Russia
for its immense brutality. As PFO explains, Wagner made a
name for itself in blood.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Wagner's reputation for brutality really began and they definitely sort
of played on it from an incident in twenty eighteen
twenty seventeen with a Syrian man called Handy Booter, who
they videoed murdering in an incredibly brutal fashion by videoing
(05:13):
him pinned at the ground. What They smashed all his
limbs with a sledgehammer, then they cut off his head
with a trenching shovel, and then Setib's body on fire
and dismembered it all on video.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
This horrific incident took place in twenty seventeen at the
Alsher gas plant near Palmira in Syria. In broad daylight,
Handy Butter is torn to pieces, as if smashing the
man in the head and groin with a sledgehammer and
dismembering him with a combat shovel wasn't gruesome enough. PMC
(05:48):
Wagner fighters then posed with the burned remains of parts
of Handy Booter's body. It's worth noting that the whole
time this awful scene is going on, PMC Wagner fighters
can be heard laughing in the background as Booter's limbs
are smashed with the sledgehammer. They're also playing music as
(06:11):
if this is some kind of celebration. Handy Booter had
fled a sad regime forces and ran to the gas
plant seeking help. He didn't realize Wagner had taken control
of it and so he was tortured to death on camera.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
It's one of the most vile sayings I've ever seen
on video. They really played on that, and you know
they've made the image of the sledgehammer one of their symbols.
You know. Pregosion had it in his apartment when it
was raided. They sent a sledgehammer to the European Parliament
as well as a sort of fuck you gesture.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So not only did they butcher this poor man on camera. PMC.
Wagner then used this brutality as a symbol to promote themselves.
Believe it or not, it actually worked. Many Russian ultra
nationalists fell in love with Wagner after this incident, and
their ranks increased. The Wagner sledgehammer made another appearance in
(07:12):
twenty twenty two in East Ukraine. An aging Russian fighter
who tried to surrender to the Ukrainians was captured by PMC. Wagner.
They filmed themselves caving his head in with a sledgehammer
as punishment. The video begins with the man laying down
with his head balanced on its side on a brick,
(07:34):
then comes down the sledgehammer, literally bashing his brains out.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
The sledgehammering. Being as gratuitously violent as possible is part
of the image. In terms of their other warkimes, I mean,
they committed horrific acts in the Central African Republic in particular,
there's drone footage even capturing them just shooting people passing
by on the road, detaining random people who are unfortunate
(08:03):
enough to stop buy on their bicycle near one of
their bases, torturing them to death, stuffing their bodies into
termite holes in order to decompose them quicker. This whole
complete destructions of villagers, lots and lots of theft and rape.
The thing is and this is important to the context
of the war in Ukraine. This isn't necessarily unique to Wagner.
(08:25):
Like across the whole war in Ukraine, we've seen horrific
war crimes committed on a really major basis by all
sorts of Russian military units. So I'm not sure if
it's Wagner stick out for this so much that this
is what the Russian military's behavior is like.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So as this battalion of war criminal mercenaries swept across
Russia amidst its mutiny, riding all the way to Moscow.
Incredible scenes were shared across the internet. Russian military began
digging combat trenches around Moscow, wagnerfiers disarmed and took over
Russian military basis, and open gun battles broke out between
(09:03):
Wagner and the Russian military all inside Russia. Wagner vehicles
were bombed from the skies and several fighters died on
each side as fishes. All seemed from the outside at least,
this mostly looked to be the real deal. Progosian was
steaming through checkpoints with over one hundred and eighty Russian
(09:23):
soldiers refusing to interfere with the mutiny. At the borders,
Wagner tanks surrounded government buildings. This was a big deal.
The Kremlin frankly looked weak and they were beginning to
lose control of the monster they had created, that is PMC. Wagner.
There was even a joke going round that the Russian
(09:45):
military had gone from the second strongest armed force in
the world to the second strongest in Russia before this mutiny.
Progosion was the face of Wagner as opposed to the
guy leading the ops. Remember, he had zero military background
before officially associating himself with the private military contractor from
(10:06):
in September twenty twenty two. Of course he was always involved,
but this is when he officially said, yeah, it's me,
I'm their guy.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I don't think he had any decision making role in
the military activities of Wagner, although some of the defectors
do say that he was on the phone quite frequently
when they were in Syria, like demanding info on casualty
counts and stuff. It's like a micromanager for different contracts.
I don't believe there is even now any single company
(10:36):
that's like, oh, this is Chubbercat Wagner. That doesn't exist.
It's an enormously complicated network of little companies and shells
that he is the sort of connective tissue between. And
like his role is this sort of super contractor going
back and forth between all these different elements. And I
(10:59):
think his connection to the leadership and his function is
specifically close to Putin. I think we know that he
used to call the presidential administration constantly. He was always
on the phone with people at the presidential administration, even
back in twenty fourteen, and that was proved by the
(11:19):
phone records that Blencat got hold of. And I think
it's that combination of being from Petersburg, knowing Putin in
a sort of very close level from doing the restaurant business.
And also I think because there's probably seen as being
a utility, he's someone usable because of his criminal background.
(11:41):
He's got that element of like dirtiness that you don't
need to worry about keeping clean.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It seems that after seeing the reality of his men
getting slaughtered as opposed to doing the slaughtering, Progojin decided
that his role as the middleman was over. With the
backing of Ukin, he launched the PMC Wagner Mutiny. Whilst
claiming his intentions weren't to actually violently storm the Kremlin,
the writing was already on the wall. It was too late.
(12:27):
Putin had been humiliated. He went on to National TV
and addressed the nation, saying that Progosion was a traitor.
Putin said, quote, I've spoken with commanders on all fronts.
I've also addressed those who've been deceived or coerced into
a criminal adventure, driven onto the path of a serious crime,
(12:51):
armed rebellion end quote. He essentially put all PMC Wagner
fighters on notice. Then, after twenty five four hours of
aunt pursuit into the Capitol, the order came from Progosion
that the mutiny was suddenly over. Just like that, the
(13:11):
flame went out. Him and his fighters were just two
hundred kilometers from Moscow when this happened. In an audio statement,
Progosion said, quote, right now, the moment has come when
the blood could be spilled. Therefore, understanding all the responsibility
for the fact that Russian blood will be spilled on
one side, we are turning our convoy around and going
(13:32):
back to our base camps according to the plan ends
quote Okay, Progosion, that was definitely the plan. So who
knows what Putin dangled over Progosian to reverse this wild
excursion into Russia, But whatever it was, it worked. PMC.
Wagner convoys turned around and made their way back to Ukraine,
(13:52):
where they plan to carry on fighting Russia's invasion. After
the mutiny, though, Progosion was exiled to Belarus and his
fighters were put on a short leash by the Russian
mod a month later. As we know, Progojin and Ukin
were toast dying in the plane crash. And what's interesting
is that from the footage it's clear that the jet
(14:13):
they were in didn't just crash, it was shot out
of the sky. A missile took out Progogin's jet as
he flew from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. The Russian authorities
said they're investigating, but who are they going to investigate?
I think it's quite clear who the prime suspect for
(14:33):
this might be. Putin is a violent man obsessed with
his own pride and self image as the strong man
of Russia. There's just no way Progosing was going to
be allowed to get away with challenging him on the
world stage the way he did. Putin essentially then showed
(14:53):
the whole world that he is so willing to step
over the line that he will literally have his former
comm raid shot out of the sky over Russian airspace.
The reason I think this incident with pregosion is so
important is that it casts the other sad Oligach deaths
(15:15):
in a different light. That is, if the Kremlin was
at all involved, which remember we don't know for certain,
but if the Kremlin was involved in these deaths, it
suddenly makes the idea that the government killed people with
frog venom poisoning, family annihilation, and mysterious suicide seem a
(15:35):
lot less absurd. After all, none of these are quite
as wild shooting a jet out of the sky as
it flies out from your own capital. This is the
final episode of sad Oligach. We've covered the extremely violent
(15:55):
or extremely unusual deaths of a dozen filthy rich Russians,
all of which died in rapid succession in twenty twenty
two and twenty twenty three. None of these cases are
clear cut. The majority of them are unsolved, and the
information on them becomes sparser as the deaths keep happening.
(16:16):
Miu and Sergei Slipchenko have spent twelve months investigating all
of this, with limited resources and many people scared to
speak to us due to the Kremlin's iron grip. Still though,
we've put together a comprehensive project showing who's been killed,
how they're connected, and why the deaths are so enigmatic.
(16:37):
Many of the people we covered in this series were
generally not good people. However, their strange, interconnected deaths I believe,
reveals that something very dark is going on inside Putin's Russia,
and it's happening quicker and more violently than ever before.
(16:58):
So who do we think is these Russian billionaires and
multi millionaires. Surgery and me had one last conversation about this,
having reviewed all our work from the past year. We
started working this year ago now and it's come to
the end. And obviously we've been very careful not to
(17:20):
try and jump to conclusions and put too much of
our thoughts into what's happening. I think some people listen
to this and they hear some of what's happened, and
they're just like, come on, clearly it's this, and we
don't we just you know, you can't we don't know.
We can't say it looks fishy. It might look like X,
Y and Z, but we can't say. So I think,
(17:40):
now let's just let's just, you know, let's just kind
of suspend that for a second, and I guess, like,
what what do you think is happening? After looking into
these dozen or so mysterious deaths, what do you think
is going on?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
I definitely see huge pattern, huge pattern, especially with some
of the cases like the family annihilations happening back to back.
I don't want to point to anything and be like, yeah,
I know, I don't have any insider information that like
somebody's confirming it. I don't think we will for the
most part, because a lot of these are in Russia,
and there's no way, I mean, unless there's some kind
(18:15):
of like Soviet type collapse and then everything is opened up,
you know, this information that these reports and stuff that
are like not being published or being altered and stuff.
Until we get something really solid, we can't ever really
say like, yeah, this is what it was for sure.
But I think with this podcast, what you can kind
of look going through it is there's definitely a pattern
(18:38):
that almost seems in a way methodical. Right. These methods
are pretty similar, you know, falling out of windows or
framing it as a murder suicide. They have a pattern
to themselves. And also all these connections to the oil
gas industry is kind of hard to ignore, right. The
guys are either worked in made their fortune or worked
(18:59):
along side somebody in the oil and gas industry, and
its just like it's so interconnected. It's kind of hard
to believe that like nothing is happening outside of that. Again,
we can't prove who it is. I was I would say,
you know, I think the likely perpetrators are either the
Russian government covering things up, or it's something between like
business partners essentially.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
I think the biggest pattern that I kind of see
from this, if I have to theorize, it seems like
their Russian government is seeing that money is leaking really
hard from their military complex essentially.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I think the invasion in Ukraine kind of showed just
how rotten the entire military, Air Force, navy are. You know,
like there's reports of them having to use like World
War Two rounds when on paper they've been producing military munitions, shells, tanks,
you know, everything like NonStop year tier, and then you
(19:55):
find out there's no AMMO, or they're lacking AMMO or
it's just like getting their because they're so dysfunctional. And
I think maybe the Russian government has started looking into,
you know, where is this issue coming from, and a
lot of these things where they see like money is
missing or if funds are misappropriated, they basically charge you
(20:17):
with treason. I think that's because that's how they see it.
They see it as like you're betraying your country. You know,
you're betraying the military, betraying the war effort. It's not
just like Oh, you committed a crime, you go to jail.
It's kind of like it's more like almost tribal or
gang like, right, you betrayed the tribe, and now you're
(20:38):
going to pay for it. And I think somebody going
to jail is a much softer message than somebody not
just dying, but their entire family being murdered.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I think that's a good point. And I think this
idea of trees and it's trees and it's trees, and
not just within the military, but within business dealings whatever.
Especially since Russia invited Ukraine, I feel like it's possible
that this treason idea has then been taken to the
end degree and it's like, okay, then we're not just
(21:08):
doing random hits. We're convicting people and executing them for
treason willbeit in an extra judicial way, as opposed to
going through cool or whatever.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I don't know, you know how gangs ran Russia and
basically incorporated themselves into the government. These killings really remind
me of that, like organized crime. You know, you betrayed
the family and now you you know, you pay with
your life. That's what it really reminds me of. I
don't want to you know, push like cartoonish kind of
(21:40):
villainization of Russia, but they definitely have this mafia gang
background to them, and I don't think it's too wild
to think that it carried on into how you know,
the government operates, how death has Bell operates, and something
that they would do, Like I wouldn't put it beyond
the realm of reality. I think it's maybe hard to
(22:00):
kind of fathom that and think of it as like, yeah,
that's what happens day today. But I think it's a
very real possibility.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
No, definitely, And we've seen it with Gazprom quote unquote
security turning up in black cars and literally removing police
officers from the scene of a quote unquote suicide and
taken over the investigation. How the hell does that even happen.
How can a private company then trump a potential murder investigation.
(22:28):
It doesn't make sense. But no, what you said there
is right, We're not. We've tried very hard not to
like come up with this ridiculous, cartoonish boogieman Russia stereotype
that is very popular amongst the media right now because
of the invasion of Ukraine. It happens in every country
like America, is up to its eyes in corruption its government.
(22:51):
My country England is an absolute joke. Like our prime
minister just like awarded a huge business contract to his
actual family and a law was shifted to a commodate that,
and it's like, well, okay, well that is it's pretty
much oligarchy in a sense. You know, it's just oh,
we don't do that in the West. We absolutely do.
(23:12):
We just have different methods and different culture around it.
But in this instance, I think Russia is quite unique
in that it's very kind of balls out with the
violence of it, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah, for sure. You know, up to the invasion of Ukraine,
Russia really tried to be more careful with like politics
and stuff and kind of their image as a country.
They always frame themselves as the victim of the of
that of being like oppressed by the US and NATO,
and I think now that they should up invaded and
they're very obviously committing human rights violations like war crimes.
(23:46):
I think they're kind of like, screw it, we don't
need to upkeep anything. Plus, all the attention is on
Ukraine right now. You barely see anything about this, you know,
so it's like it seems like a good time to
clean house, so to say.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
If you look at the history of Prutin as well,
before he was even in the position of power that
he's now, similar things like this have happened to other
people around him. Not on this degree, not this many times,
not this many people, but similar things have happened as
is with several different Russian politicians. And I agree with you.
I don't think it's Putin sat there in his palace
(24:19):
being like this one hit this guy is what to do.
I just think he has bred a culture of totalitarian
violence within the Kremlin, and it possibly has given a
green light to people to be like, hey have a
it now.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Yeah, for sure, this is not new. I mean all
throughout throughout his I don't know, reign or his leadership.
You've seen journalists die. It was just much maybe it's like,
you know, the ones that were public were much much rare.
There was the journalist who was killed I forget her name.
There was the politician who was killed like just straight
(24:53):
up in front of Parliament in daylight. He was shot
in the back. But like, this is nothing new. It's
not like all of a sudden this is a new
for nomenal that's happening. This has been happening for a
long time. The Chichen War was started by apartment bombings.
That is quite convincingly proved to be like through the
fasbad conducting those apartment bombings, right, And I just think
(25:16):
maybe if you're not in this, like if you're not
into this world and you're not really looking into it
and reading stuff, it may seem like it comes out
of nowhere. But I think if you followed this, if
you followed Russia and just how it operates, it kind
of it's not that out of the norm or that
far fetched for these things to be happening.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, and you're on about Boris Nemstov who was shot
on the bridge in the back. I was talking to
a friend about this and something quite chilling that he
pointed out was if you look at the location where
he was shot and where all the press forwards were
then shot with the flowers with the frame pictures, because
(25:56):
you know, Nemstov was loved by a lot of people,
if you look at the photos, then the Kremlin is
just in the background of every shot. It has to
be because of the positioning. And his theory was, yeah,
they made that on purpose. You can't just wander around
and just randomly kill people in that area because you know,
it's essentially meant to be, in a way, the kind
(26:18):
of safest place in the city because that's where the
government is, right. And if you look at those images,
there's one very specific one where a guy is like
laying down some roses and just in the background you
can see the Kremlin there the whole time, and there's
something very eerie about that. And when I was looking
at that, I then kind of looked at some of
these other killings, and you know, you don't want to
(26:39):
jump to conclusions, but it's like, yeah, I definitely think
there's certain significances to these things. Again a pattern, like
you said, for example, Pregosion was killed a month to
the day after his after his little mutiny. It's very coincidental.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Yeah, for sure, I can definitely see that. You know,
part of part of this is I think with Pregosion, like,
I don't think it was accidental. I like the day
that that had happened, it seems like very symbolic and
very much of this is what you get, like if
you mess with me kind of thing, because I think
Putin was very much embarrassed and humiliated by the fact
that Wagner could even threaten Kremlin, right. I think that
(27:19):
was a huge blow to his ego, to his image.
And I think doing it like you said, a month
to the day afterwards is definitely symbolic and like kind
of showing like this is what happens if you mess
with me.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
It's almost like, hey, here's a signature, which I feel
like in some of these cases, there's perhaps you could
argue a sign of a signature on some of these things.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yeah, I think I think Russia's done this a lot,
you know, with a lot of the pop poisonings in England,
like they kind of don't really care if they leave
a trace to the point where always seems like they
want to. They kind of want to, you know, like
laugh in like the West face like we can do
this and look at you not doing anything. Like a
lot of these deaths happened. The guys went back to
(28:03):
Russia and they were on TV essentially marking the West
and saying like, oh, we were just in vacation, we
got away with it. What are you going to do?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
So let's end this with three different theories as to
what might be happening in Russia regarding the sad oligarch deaths.
And remember I am not saying any of these are true.
You can decide first theory. Post Soviet Russia bred a
class of oligarchs who made their money through lawlessness and extortion.
(28:52):
They then swapped their bandit hats for suits and loafers
once the money was made legit through government schemes, many
of which were run by people of the same ilk politics,
business crime. A ven diagram of early post Soviet Russia.
First forward thirty years or so, and the seeds are
in full bloom. What was the start of a new
(29:13):
chapter for Russia is now solid ingrained and under control
of an increasingly violent dictator with great wealth and power.
If anyone agitates against Putin, he deals with them in
the way any authoritarian does. He crushes them, either metaphorically
or literally. Everyone who came up and made bank in
(29:35):
this era is in some way associated with his circles,
because that's how it is. You can't be on the
take against the Kremlin, not for long anyway. Through this
culture of big money and totalitarianism, everyone is prepared to
snake each other at any moment. So when Putin started
his war on Ukraine, which caused a gigantic geopolitical shift,
(30:00):
really needed to be dealt with. Various oligarchs, by definition,
are intermingled with the politics of Putin's Russia. They're powerful too.
Putin doesn't like that the Kremlin and its various tentacles
are given a green light for a scorched earth policy
on these people if they don't play board. Various different
(30:22):
groups ready to do dirty work for the Kremlin or
the best price immobilized. It's not the first time. In
keeping with the USSR, the art of assassination that looks
like an accident is employed. After all, they want to
warn everyone to keep in line, but they can't be
seen to the public to be going full mask off
(30:42):
monster on their own associates. It looks unruly, and so
the Kremlin has been rapidly killing its powerful detractors in
a bid to further consolidate power like never before, as
Russia enters new grounds of global pariah. Second theory, oligarchs
(31:02):
themselves criminals by nature, are using the distractions of the
Ukraine war to deal with rivals. It helps business, It
keeps things in order, and it might even put you
in Putin's good books. With all the money in the world,
these people can hire whole teams of hitmen if needed.
They don't want to go to prison and they don't
want to be seen as cold blooded killers, so the
(31:25):
higher people that will make it all look like a
bit of an accident. Third theory, Russian oligarchs are just
very clumsy, prone to accidents, and regularly depressed. This has
been sad Oligarch. Thank you for listening. Before we end this,
(31:51):
I just want to speak briefly about my friend and
colleague on this project, Sergey Slipchenko. You've heard him throughout
the series, adding much needed context and digging up information
that's not easy to find. Sergi himself is Ukrainian. In fact,
I was in Kiev with him just days before Russia invaded.
(32:12):
His home was uprooted and he had to leave. This
project is understandably quite personal for him, but despite this,
he's never once let that cloud his judgment. There would
be no sad Oligach without him. Sergi is an excellent
journalist and he has a new project starting soon investigating
the often overlooked geopolitical shifts in the Arctic. It's going
(32:36):
to be good, so check it out at www. Dot
arcticpod dot co. Sad Oligach is a H eleven production
for Cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced, researched and
edited by me Jake Hanrahan and Sergi slipchenkok Co produced
(33:00):
by Sophie Lichtman. Music by Sam Black, artwork by Adam mcdoyle,
sound mix by Splicing Block. Go to Jacanrahan dot com
for more information.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Another Russian Holigark has been found dead. The report suggests
that he hanged himself bell out a window, slashed his wrists,
He was poisoned, murdered his whole family. Something strange is
going on.
Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists,
was poisoned, murdered his whole family.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Last year, more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in
the space of nine months. Many of the deaths are
suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach,
an investigation into these recently dead Russian billionaires. It's created
by me jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergey Slipchenko. Sad
(00:37):
Oligarch is a h eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio.
As the bodies of mangled PMC. Wagna Fights has piled
up on East Ukraine's blackmut frontline, progosion began to crack.
(01:00):
His men were getting decimated. Ukrainian drawing footage shows dozens
of mercenary corpses dotted around the smoldering ruins of their trenches,
burned out vehicles and bullet riddle bodies. The myth of PMC.
Wagner being an elite operator force was being debunked in
real time as these videos spread across social media. Throughout May,
(01:23):
Progosion released some footage of his own father.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Shah.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
In a now infamous video first posted to Telegram, he
angrily addresses the Russian military leadership. Progosion accused Sergei Shogu,
the Defense Minister, and Valeri Garrisimov, the Chief of General Staff,
withholding artillery ammunition from his fighters. He says, quote, that's
direct obstruction, plain and simple. It can be equated with
(01:57):
high treason and the battle for BAGHMUTI times more of
my guy has died than should have. Listen to me,
you slim. These are somebody's father's, somebody's sons, and the
skum who aren't given us the ammunition will be eating
their guts in hell with seventy percent short on ammo. Shogu, Garrisimov,
where's the fucking ammo? End quote? He was blaming them.
(02:21):
In another video, stood in front of the camera with
MPMC Wagner fighters surrounding him, Progosion appears increasingly frustrated. Several
more videos like this will be released, with Progosion exploding
in a fit of rage as he got more and
more daring in his criticism of the Russian state. This
culminated on June twenty four to twenty twenty three, the
(02:41):
beginning of the short lived Wagner Mutiny, footage of what
was allegedly a Russian military strike on Wagner positions inside
occupied areas of Ukraine was released via PMC. Wagner media
Progosian claimed that dozens of his men had been killed
by his fellow countrymen serving the Russian EMOD. Not a
single body is actually seen in any of this footage, though,
(03:05):
just random shots of ruined positions with gunfire heard amongst
the trees in the near distance. In fact, to this day,
there's been no evidence any Wagner fighters were killed in
this alleged friendly fire strike on their base, if it
even happened at all. Immediately, the Russian Ministry of Defense
released a statement saying quote all the messages and videos
(03:28):
spread on social media networks on behalf of progosing about
the alleged strike of the Russian Ministry of Defense against
the rear camps of the Wagner PMC are untrue and
are in information provocation. The Armed forces of the Russian
Federation continue to carry out combat tasks on the line
of contact with the AFU in the area of the
special military operation ends quote now if you don't already know,
(03:53):
the special military operation is what Russia has decided to
call its awful invasion of Ukraine. Now, whatever happened, it
served as the match that lit the fire on the
PMC Wagner mutiny. Progosin had had enough. It was time
to ride on Moscow. PMC Wagner fighters turned down armored
(04:13):
vehicles around, loaded their trucks with weapons, and drove over
the Ukrainian border back into Russia. By the evening, armed
Wagner fighters were seen on the streets of Russia's Rostov,
just over Ukraine's border. They were actually warmly welcomed by
the citizens there and pretty much the same with every
Russian town they go on to take. This was quite
(04:35):
shocking considering PMC Wagner is known worldwide and in Russia
for its immense brutality. As PFO explains, Wagner made a
name for itself in blood.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Wagner's reputation for brutality really began and they definitely sort
of played on it from an incident in twenty eighteen
twenty seventeen with a Syrian man called Handy Booter, who
they videoed murdering in an incredibly brutal fashion by videoing
(05:13):
him pinned at the ground. What They smashed all his
limbs with a sledgehammer, then they cut off his head
with a trenching shovel, and then Setib's body on fire
and dismembered it all on video.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
This horrific incident took place in twenty seventeen at the
Alsher gas plant near Palmira in Syria. In broad daylight,
Handy Butter is torn to pieces, as if smashing the
man in the head and groin with a sledgehammer and
dismembering him with a combat shovel wasn't gruesome enough. PMC
(05:48):
Wagner fighters then posed with the burned remains of parts
of Handy Booter's body. It's worth noting that the whole
time this awful scene is going on, PMC Wagner fighters
can be heard laughing in the background as Booter's limbs
are smashed with the sledgehammer. They're also playing music as
(06:11):
if this is some kind of celebration. Handy Booter had
fled a sad regime forces and ran to the gas
plant seeking help. He didn't realize Wagner had taken control
of it and so he was tortured to death on camera.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
It's one of the most vile sayings I've ever seen
on video. They really played on that, and you know
they've made the image of the sledgehammer one of their symbols.
You know. Pregosion had it in his apartment when it
was raided. They sent a sledgehammer to the European Parliament
as well as a sort of fuck you gesture.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So not only did they butcher this poor man on camera. PMC.
Wagner then used this brutality as a symbol to promote themselves.
Believe it or not, it actually worked. Many Russian ultra
nationalists fell in love with Wagner after this incident, and
their ranks increased. The Wagner sledgehammer made another appearance in
(07:12):
twenty twenty two in East Ukraine. An aging Russian fighter
who tried to surrender to the Ukrainians was captured by PMC. Wagner.
They filmed themselves caving his head in with a sledgehammer
as punishment. The video begins with the man laying down
with his head balanced on its side on a brick,
(07:34):
then comes down the sledgehammer, literally bashing his brains out.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
The sledgehammering. Being as gratuitously violent as possible is part
of the image. In terms of their other warkimes, I mean,
they committed horrific acts in the Central African Republic in particular,
there's drone footage even capturing them just shooting people passing
by on the road, detaining random people who are unfortunate
(08:03):
enough to stop buy on their bicycle near one of
their bases, torturing them to death, stuffing their bodies into
termite holes in order to decompose them quicker. This whole
complete destructions of villagers, lots and lots of theft and rape.
The thing is and this is important to the context
of the war in Ukraine. This isn't necessarily unique to Wagner.
(08:25):
Like across the whole war in Ukraine, we've seen horrific
war crimes committed on a really major basis by all
sorts of Russian military units. So I'm not sure if
it's Wagner stick out for this so much that this
is what the Russian military's behavior is like.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So as this battalion of war criminal mercenaries swept across
Russia amidst its mutiny, riding all the way to Moscow.
Incredible scenes were shared across the internet. Russian military began
digging combat trenches around Moscow, wagnerfiers disarmed and took over
Russian military basis, and open gun battles broke out between
(09:03):
Wagner and the Russian military all inside Russia. Wagner vehicles
were bombed from the skies and several fighters died on
each side as fishes. All seemed from the outside at least,
this mostly looked to be the real deal. Progosian was
steaming through checkpoints with over one hundred and eighty Russian
(09:23):
soldiers refusing to interfere with the mutiny. At the borders,
Wagner tanks surrounded government buildings. This was a big deal.
The Kremlin frankly looked weak and they were beginning to
lose control of the monster they had created, that is PMC. Wagner.
There was even a joke going round that the Russian
(09:45):
military had gone from the second strongest armed force in
the world to the second strongest in Russia before this mutiny.
Progosion was the face of Wagner as opposed to the
guy leading the ops. Remember, he had zero military background
before officially associating himself with the private military contractor from
(10:06):
in September twenty twenty two. Of course he was always involved,
but this is when he officially said, yeah, it's me,
I'm their guy.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I don't think he had any decision making role in
the military activities of Wagner, although some of the defectors
do say that he was on the phone quite frequently
when they were in Syria, like demanding info on casualty
counts and stuff. It's like a micromanager for different contracts.
I don't believe there is even now any single company
(10:36):
that's like, oh, this is Chubbercat Wagner. That doesn't exist.
It's an enormously complicated network of little companies and shells
that he is the sort of connective tissue between. And
like his role is this sort of super contractor going
back and forth between all these different elements. And I
(10:59):
think his connection to the leadership and his function is
specifically close to Putin. I think we know that he
used to call the presidential administration constantly. He was always
on the phone with people at the presidential administration, even
back in twenty fourteen, and that was proved by the
(11:19):
phone records that Blencat got hold of. And I think
it's that combination of being from Petersburg, knowing Putin in
a sort of very close level from doing the restaurant business.
And also I think because there's probably seen as being
a utility, he's someone usable because of his criminal background.
(11:41):
He's got that element of like dirtiness that you don't
need to worry about keeping clean.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It seems that after seeing the reality of his men
getting slaughtered as opposed to doing the slaughtering, Progojin decided
that his role as the middleman was over. With the
backing of Ukin, he launched the PMC Wagner Mutiny. Whilst
claiming his intentions weren't to actually violently storm the Kremlin,
the writing was already on the wall. It was too late.
(12:27):
Putin had been humiliated. He went on to National TV
and addressed the nation, saying that Progosion was a traitor.
Putin said, quote, I've spoken with commanders on all fronts.
I've also addressed those who've been deceived or coerced into
a criminal adventure, driven onto the path of a serious crime,
(12:51):
armed rebellion end quote. He essentially put all PMC Wagner
fighters on notice. Then, after twenty five four hours of
aunt pursuit into the Capitol, the order came from Progosion
that the mutiny was suddenly over. Just like that, the
(13:11):
flame went out. Him and his fighters were just two
hundred kilometers from Moscow when this happened. In an audio statement,
Progosion said, quote, right now, the moment has come when
the blood could be spilled. Therefore, understanding all the responsibility
for the fact that Russian blood will be spilled on
one side, we are turning our convoy around and going
(13:32):
back to our base camps according to the plan ends
quote Okay, Progosion, that was definitely the plan. So who
knows what Putin dangled over Progosian to reverse this wild
excursion into Russia, But whatever it was, it worked. PMC.
Wagner convoys turned around and made their way back to Ukraine,
(13:52):
where they plan to carry on fighting Russia's invasion. After
the mutiny, though, Progosion was exiled to Belarus and his
fighters were put on a short leash by the Russian
mod a month later. As we know, Progojin and Ukin
were toast dying in the plane crash. And what's interesting
is that from the footage it's clear that the jet
(14:13):
they were in didn't just crash, it was shot out
of the sky. A missile took out Progogin's jet as
he flew from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. The Russian authorities
said they're investigating, but who are they going to investigate?
I think it's quite clear who the prime suspect for
(14:33):
this might be. Putin is a violent man obsessed with
his own pride and self image as the strong man
of Russia. There's just no way Progosing was going to
be allowed to get away with challenging him on the
world stage the way he did. Putin essentially then showed
(14:53):
the whole world that he is so willing to step
over the line that he will literally have his former
comm raid shot out of the sky over Russian airspace.
The reason I think this incident with pregosion is so
important is that it casts the other sad Oligach deaths
(15:15):
in a different light. That is, if the Kremlin was
at all involved, which remember we don't know for certain,
but if the Kremlin was involved in these deaths, it
suddenly makes the idea that the government killed people with
frog venom poisoning, family annihilation, and mysterious suicide seem a
(15:35):
lot less absurd. After all, none of these are quite
as wild shooting a jet out of the sky as
it flies out from your own capital. This is the
final episode of sad Oligach. We've covered the extremely violent
(15:55):
or extremely unusual deaths of a dozen filthy rich Russians,
all of which died in rapid succession in twenty twenty
two and twenty twenty three. None of these cases are
clear cut. The majority of them are unsolved, and the
information on them becomes sparser as the deaths keep happening.
(16:16):
Miu and Sergei Slipchenko have spent twelve months investigating all
of this, with limited resources and many people scared to
speak to us due to the Kremlin's iron grip. Still though,
we've put together a comprehensive project showing who's been killed,
how they're connected, and why the deaths are so enigmatic.
(16:37):
Many of the people we covered in this series were
generally not good people. However, their strange, interconnected deaths I believe,
reveals that something very dark is going on inside Putin's Russia,
and it's happening quicker and more violently than ever before.
(16:58):
So who do we think is these Russian billionaires and
multi millionaires. Surgery and me had one last conversation about this,
having reviewed all our work from the past year. We
started working this year ago now and it's come to
the end. And obviously we've been very careful not to
(17:20):
try and jump to conclusions and put too much of
our thoughts into what's happening. I think some people listen
to this and they hear some of what's happened, and
they're just like, come on, clearly it's this, and we
don't we just you know, you can't we don't know.
We can't say it looks fishy. It might look like X,
Y and Z, but we can't say. So I think,
(17:40):
now let's just let's just, you know, let's just kind
of suspend that for a second, and I guess, like,
what what do you think is happening? After looking into
these dozen or so mysterious deaths, what do you think
is going on?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
I definitely see huge pattern, huge pattern, especially with some
of the cases like the family annihilations happening back to back.
I don't want to point to anything and be like, yeah,
I know, I don't have any insider information that like
somebody's confirming it. I don't think we will for the
most part, because a lot of these are in Russia,
and there's no way, I mean, unless there's some kind
(18:15):
of like Soviet type collapse and then everything is opened up,
you know, this information that these reports and stuff that
are like not being published or being altered and stuff.
Until we get something really solid, we can't ever really
say like, yeah, this is what it was for sure.
But I think with this podcast, what you can kind
of look going through it is there's definitely a pattern
(18:38):
that almost seems in a way methodical. Right. These methods
are pretty similar, you know, falling out of windows or
framing it as a murder suicide. They have a pattern
to themselves. And also all these connections to the oil
gas industry is kind of hard to ignore, right. The
guys are either worked in made their fortune or worked
(18:59):
along side somebody in the oil and gas industry, and
its just like it's so interconnected. It's kind of hard
to believe that like nothing is happening outside of that. Again,
we can't prove who it is. I was I would say,
you know, I think the likely perpetrators are either the
Russian government covering things up, or it's something between like
business partners essentially.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
I think the biggest pattern that I kind of see
from this, if I have to theorize, it seems like
their Russian government is seeing that money is leaking really
hard from their military complex essentially.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I think the invasion in Ukraine kind of showed just
how rotten the entire military, Air Force, navy are. You know,
like there's reports of them having to use like World
War Two rounds when on paper they've been producing military munitions, shells, tanks,
you know, everything like NonStop year tier, and then you
(19:55):
find out there's no AMMO, or they're lacking AMMO or
it's just like getting their because they're so dysfunctional. And
I think maybe the Russian government has started looking into,
you know, where is this issue coming from, and a
lot of these things where they see like money is
missing or if funds are misappropriated, they basically charge you
(20:17):
with treason. I think that's because that's how they see it.
They see it as like you're betraying your country. You know,
you're betraying the military, betraying the war effort. It's not
just like Oh, you committed a crime, you go to jail.
It's kind of like it's more like almost tribal or
gang like, right, you betrayed the tribe, and now you're
(20:38):
going to pay for it. And I think somebody going
to jail is a much softer message than somebody not
just dying, but their entire family being murdered.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I think that's a good point. And I think this
idea of trees and it's trees and it's trees, and
not just within the military, but within business dealings whatever.
Especially since Russia invited Ukraine, I feel like it's possible
that this treason idea has then been taken to the
end degree and it's like, okay, then we're not just
(21:08):
doing random hits. We're convicting people and executing them for
treason willbeit in an extra judicial way, as opposed to
going through cool or whatever.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I don't know, you know how gangs ran Russia and
basically incorporated themselves into the government. These killings really remind
me of that, like organized crime. You know, you betrayed
the family and now you you know, you pay with
your life. That's what it really reminds me of. I
don't want to you know, push like cartoonish kind of
(21:40):
villainization of Russia, but they definitely have this mafia gang
background to them, and I don't think it's too wild
to think that it carried on into how you know,
the government operates, how death has Bell operates, and something
that they would do, Like I wouldn't put it beyond
the realm of reality. I think it's maybe hard to
(22:00):
kind of fathom that and think of it as like, yeah,
that's what happens day today. But I think it's a
very real possibility.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
No, definitely, And we've seen it with Gazprom quote unquote
security turning up in black cars and literally removing police
officers from the scene of a quote unquote suicide and
taken over the investigation. How the hell does that even happen.
How can a private company then trump a potential murder investigation.
(22:28):
It doesn't make sense. But no, what you said there
is right, We're not. We've tried very hard not to
like come up with this ridiculous, cartoonish boogieman Russia stereotype
that is very popular amongst the media right now because
of the invasion of Ukraine. It happens in every country
like America, is up to its eyes in corruption its government.
(22:51):
My country England is an absolute joke. Like our prime
minister just like awarded a huge business contract to his
actual family and a law was shifted to a commodate that,
and it's like, well, okay, well that is it's pretty
much oligarchy in a sense. You know, it's just oh,
we don't do that in the West. We absolutely do.
(23:12):
We just have different methods and different culture around it.
But in this instance, I think Russia is quite unique
in that it's very kind of balls out with the
violence of it, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah, for sure. You know, up to the invasion of Ukraine,
Russia really tried to be more careful with like politics
and stuff and kind of their image as a country.
They always frame themselves as the victim of the of
that of being like oppressed by the US and NATO,
and I think now that they should up invaded and
they're very obviously committing human rights violations like war crimes.
(23:46):
I think they're kind of like, screw it, we don't
need to upkeep anything. Plus, all the attention is on
Ukraine right now. You barely see anything about this, you know,
so it's like it seems like a good time to
clean house, so to say.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
If you look at the history of Prutin as well,
before he was even in the position of power that
he's now, similar things like this have happened to other
people around him. Not on this degree, not this many times,
not this many people, but similar things have happened as
is with several different Russian politicians. And I agree with you.
I don't think it's Putin sat there in his palace
(24:19):
being like this one hit this guy is what to do.
I just think he has bred a culture of totalitarian
violence within the Kremlin, and it possibly has given a
green light to people to be like, hey have a
it now.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Yeah, for sure, this is not new. I mean all
throughout throughout his I don't know, reign or his leadership.
You've seen journalists die. It was just much maybe it's like,
you know, the ones that were public were much much rare.
There was the journalist who was killed I forget her name.
There was the politician who was killed like just straight
(24:53):
up in front of Parliament in daylight. He was shot
in the back. But like, this is nothing new. It's
not like all of a sudden this is a new
for nomenal that's happening. This has been happening for a
long time. The Chichen War was started by apartment bombings.
That is quite convincingly proved to be like through the
fasbad conducting those apartment bombings, right, And I just think
(25:16):
maybe if you're not in this, like if you're not
into this world and you're not really looking into it
and reading stuff, it may seem like it comes out
of nowhere. But I think if you followed this, if
you followed Russia and just how it operates, it kind
of it's not that out of the norm or that
far fetched for these things to be happening.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, and you're on about Boris Nemstov who was shot
on the bridge in the back. I was talking to
a friend about this and something quite chilling that he
pointed out was if you look at the location where
he was shot and where all the press forwards were
then shot with the flowers with the frame pictures, because
(25:56):
you know, Nemstov was loved by a lot of people,
if you look at the photos, then the Kremlin is
just in the background of every shot. It has to
be because of the positioning. And his theory was, yeah,
they made that on purpose. You can't just wander around
and just randomly kill people in that area because you know,
it's essentially meant to be, in a way, the kind
(26:18):
of safest place in the city because that's where the
government is, right. And if you look at those images,
there's one very specific one where a guy is like
laying down some roses and just in the background you
can see the Kremlin there the whole time, and there's
something very eerie about that. And when I was looking
at that, I then kind of looked at some of
these other killings, and you know, you don't want to
(26:39):
jump to conclusions, but it's like, yeah, I definitely think
there's certain significances to these things. Again a pattern, like
you said, for example, Pregosion was killed a month to
the day after his after his little mutiny. It's very coincidental.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Yeah, for sure, I can definitely see that. You know,
part of part of this is I think with Pregosion, like,
I don't think it was accidental. I like the day
that that had happened, it seems like very symbolic and
very much of this is what you get, like if
you mess with me kind of thing, because I think
Putin was very much embarrassed and humiliated by the fact
that Wagner could even threaten Kremlin, right. I think that
(27:19):
was a huge blow to his ego, to his image.
And I think doing it like you said, a month
to the day afterwards is definitely symbolic and like kind
of showing like this is what happens if you mess
with me.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
It's almost like, hey, here's a signature, which I feel
like in some of these cases, there's perhaps you could
argue a sign of a signature on some of these things.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yeah, I think I think Russia's done this a lot,
you know, with a lot of the pop poisonings in England,
like they kind of don't really care if they leave
a trace to the point where always seems like they
want to. They kind of want to, you know, like
laugh in like the West face like we can do
this and look at you not doing anything. Like a
lot of these deaths happened. The guys went back to
(28:03):
Russia and they were on TV essentially marking the West
and saying like, oh, we were just in vacation, we
got away with it. What are you going to do?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
So let's end this with three different theories as to
what might be happening in Russia regarding the sad oligarch deaths.
And remember I am not saying any of these are true.
You can decide first theory. Post Soviet Russia bred a
class of oligarchs who made their money through lawlessness and extortion.
(28:52):
They then swapped their bandit hats for suits and loafers
once the money was made legit through government schemes, many
of which were run by people of the same ilk politics,
business crime. A ven diagram of early post Soviet Russia.
First forward thirty years or so, and the seeds are
in full bloom. What was the start of a new
(29:13):
chapter for Russia is now solid ingrained and under control
of an increasingly violent dictator with great wealth and power.
If anyone agitates against Putin, he deals with them in
the way any authoritarian does. He crushes them, either metaphorically
or literally. Everyone who came up and made bank in
(29:35):
this era is in some way associated with his circles,
because that's how it is. You can't be on the
take against the Kremlin, not for long anyway. Through this
culture of big money and totalitarianism, everyone is prepared to
snake each other at any moment. So when Putin started
his war on Ukraine, which caused a gigantic geopolitical shift,
(30:00):
really needed to be dealt with. Various oligarchs, by definition,
are intermingled with the politics of Putin's Russia. They're powerful too.
Putin doesn't like that the Kremlin and its various tentacles
are given a green light for a scorched earth policy
on these people if they don't play board. Various different
(30:22):
groups ready to do dirty work for the Kremlin or
the best price immobilized. It's not the first time. In
keeping with the USSR, the art of assassination that looks
like an accident is employed. After all, they want to
warn everyone to keep in line, but they can't be
seen to the public to be going full mask off
(30:42):
monster on their own associates. It looks unruly, and so
the Kremlin has been rapidly killing its powerful detractors in
a bid to further consolidate power like never before, as
Russia enters new grounds of global pariah. Second theory, oligarchs
(31:02):
themselves criminals by nature, are using the distractions of the
Ukraine war to deal with rivals. It helps business, It
keeps things in order, and it might even put you
in Putin's good books. With all the money in the world,
these people can hire whole teams of hitmen if needed.
They don't want to go to prison and they don't
want to be seen as cold blooded killers, so the
(31:25):
higher people that will make it all look like a
bit of an accident. Third theory, Russian oligarchs are just
very clumsy, prone to accidents, and regularly depressed. This has
been sad Oligarch. Thank you for listening. Before we end this,
(31:51):
I just want to speak briefly about my friend and
colleague on this project, Sergey Slipchenko. You've heard him throughout
the series, adding much needed context and digging up information
that's not easy to find. Sergi himself is Ukrainian. In fact,
I was in Kiev with him just days before Russia invaded.
(32:12):
His home was uprooted and he had to leave. This
project is understandably quite personal for him, but despite this,
he's never once let that cloud his judgment. There would
be no sad Oligach without him. Sergi is an excellent
journalist and he has a new project starting soon investigating
the often overlooked geopolitical shifts in the Arctic. It's going
(32:36):
to be good, so check it out at www. Dot
arcticpod dot co. Sad Oligach is a H eleven production
for Cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced, researched and
edited by me Jake Hanrahan and Sergi slipchenkok Co produced
(33:00):
by Sophie Lichtman. Music by Sam Black, artwork by Adam mcdoyle,
sound mix by Splicing Block. Go to Jacanrahan dot com
for more information.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Another Russian Holigark has been found dead. The report suggests
that he hanged himself bell out a window, slashed his wrists,
He was poisoned, murdered his whole family. Something strange is
going on.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!