A multi-millionaire and his wife have been found stabbed to death near Moscow in what appears to be the latest of a series of killings involving Russian business moguls.
A naked Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50 - both Ukrainian-born - were found with multiple knife wounds by their daughter Polina, 20.
Immediate reports of the case claimed the killings were murder-suicide triggered by jealousy, alike to other prominent cases.
The wife is said to have discovered her telecom tycoon husband cheated on her, and was poised to walk out of the family.
After stabbing him 14 times, she then drew two hearts in his blood on a wall.
She then proceeded to take her own life, claimed the initial reports.
The pair were found by their distraught daughter at their home in the Moscow region, and she called for urgent medical help after suffering from shock at what she had seen.
As in previous cases, a close family friend has disputed the account of what happened, and has denied any marital problems.
Mikhail, the couple's friend who saw them regularly, said they were a “true example of a loving family” and were always “so harmonious”.
He has suggested that the pair were murdered, saying: “One of them possibly killing the other because of jealousy, causes nothing but bewilderment.
“There was real goodness in their relationship.”
Palant made his fortune as a philanthropist in Abkhazia, a region of Georgia recognised as an independent state by Russia.
He also had interests in a variety of companies with connections to the Russian elite.
During the pandemic lockdown, he told TASS he and wife had “the happiest time of our lives because we were together 24/7’”.
A similar case happened in April, where wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and teenage daughter, Maria.
It was reported that he had high level links to leading Russian financial institution Gazprombank, seen as close to the ruling elite in Moscow.
Several days later multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain, after evidently killing with an axe his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter.
He was a former deputy chairman of Novatek - a company also closely linked to the Kremlin.
It has been claimed that the two cases were assassinations made to appear as domestic murders-and-suicides.
