Russian poet Lev Rubinstein, a leading critic of the Kremlin, died today at the age of 76, six days after being hit by a car in Moscow. The man was hospitalized in serious condition but later died.
His daughter officially announced his death. "My father, Lev Rubinstein, passed away today," Maria Rubinstein wrote on her Live Journal blog, her announcement being made public in local media.
Lev Rubinstein, whose work is highly regarded both in Russia and in the West, was hit by a car while crossing a street in the capital Moscow on January 8.
In a statement on the incident, the Moscow Transport Department reported that the driver did not slow down at all when approaching the pedestrian crossing where the poet was crossing. The driver has a total of 19 traffic violations in the last one year.
Born in 1947 in Moscow, a librarian by training, Lev Rubinstein was one of the leading figures of the Soviet underground literary scene in the 1970s and 1980s - a "new avant-garde" that claimed inventiveness and audacity. In the 1970s, he was considered one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism, a movement that mocked the official doctrine of socialist realism.
The poet did not hide his views hostile to Putin's regime, condemning political repression and human rights violations and participating in opposition demonstrations.
In March 2022, together with other Russian writers, Lev Rubinstein signed an open letter criticizing the Russian army's large-scale attack on Ukraine, calling it a "criminal war" and criticizing the Kremlin's "lies".
A number of critics of Putin's regime have argued that the recent spate of deaths is murder, with Russia's paranoid head of state purging his inner circle.
A year ago, 67-year-old tycoon Ravil Maganov "fell" from the window of the elite Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow, also known as the Kremlin Clinic. There were suspicions of murder, but officially Maganov was in hospital due to a "long-standing heart problem" and fell from a sixth-floor window, dying on the spot.
Billionaire Alexander Subotin, 43, also linked to energy giant Lukoil, where he was a top manager, was found dead in May after "taking advice from shamans". One of the versions is that Subotin, who also owns a shipping company, was poisoned with frog poison, which caused a heart attack.
The body of 49-year-old energy magnate Igor Shkurko, deputy general director of Yakutskenergo, was found in his cell at a detention center after he was accused of taking a bribe. Experts believe that the deaths of at least 39 high-ranking figures - from oligarchs to scientists and even generals - may show the shadowy and bloody hand of the Kremlin.
Sergei Grishin - the so-called "scarred face" oligarch who sold Meghan and Harry their California mansion - died of sepsis after criticizing Putin.
Meanwhile, the scientist Andrey Botikov - creator of the "Sputnik V" vaccine - was strangled with a belt in his apartment.
BGNES recalls that in just a few days, three journalists - critics of Putin - lost their lives.
Zoya Konovalova, 48, anchor and editor-in-chief of the Kuban State Television and Radio Company, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's national television channels, was found dead in Krasnodar. However, the cause of death is rather doubtful, as it is a case of poisoning, as in the cases of the other two journalists. Konovalova's body was found on January 5 in her home along with the body of her 52-year-old ex-husband.
No visible injuries were found on the bodies of Konovalova and her ex-husband, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
News of her death comes after another Russian journalist, Alexander Rybin, was found dead in Rostov. The cause of his death is also not clear, but it is certain that days before his death he visited Mariupol in Ukraine.
Last month, 35-year-old Anna Tsareva, deputy editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda, was found dead in her Moscow apartment. According to Newsweek, a few days before her death, she had pneumonia and a fever. /BGNES
