The deputy chairman of Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, died suddenly on Monday, according to official reports, Mykola Vasyev, who was 42 years old, died of a heart attack.

In recent years, Mykola Vasyev was responsible for private clients and the real estate sector, and in December 2022 he was appointed vice president, almost a year after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sberbank announced his death in a press release, DPA and Agerpres reported.

The EU also imposed tough sanctions against Sberbank in the summer of 2022 in response to the invasion. Under pressure from Western sanctions, Russian banks reported a drop in profits of more than 90% in 2022, the first year of the war.

Several Russian politicians, as well as leaders of the industrial and financial sectors, have died of suspected heart attacks or suicides since the war began. Among them was a former deputy director of Gazprombank, who allegedly committed suicide with family members in their Moscow apartment about two months after the invasion began. His neighbors expressed doubt about the official version of these deaths.

• Another top manager linked to Gazprom found dead in swimming pool with a gunshot wound to the head
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• “Indigo-suicides” among Russian oligarchs: the vice president of the Novotek company allegedly hanged himself after killing his wife and daughter

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