Billionaire Igor Kudryakov, Vladimir Putin's crony, found dead at Moscow apartment

At the age of 64, billionaire Igor Kudryakov, one of Russia's oligarchs, was discovered dead in his Moscow flat following a succession of other prominent deaths among Vladimir Putin's cronies.

Kudryakov founded Service 77, a delivery service that distributes food and other supplies throughout the Russian city, according to The Sun, and later served as the first deputy head of the Department of the State Housing Inspectorate of the Moscow Region.

It has been reported that Kudryakov had been battling cancer as an emergency services spokesperson informed Tass news agency: "Igor Kudryakov was found dead in his apartment on Kudrinskaya Square in the Presnensky district of Moscow.

"According to preliminary data, the cause of the businessman's death was an oncological disease."

The sudden death of the billionaire comes after dozens of prominent Russians have died since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and experts think at least 39 deaths, including those of oligarchs and businessmen, may be evidence of the bloody hand of the Kremlin.

Many of the influential people passed away in peculiar ways, like unexpected "suicides" and falls from windows due to which Jon Sweet, a retired military intelligence officer for the US Army, said that Putin is in charge of the "modern-day FSB version of Murder Inc."

"Anyone seen as a potential threat seems to have an attraction to an open window," Sweet told The Sun.

Previously, Andrey Fomin, the prominent Russian prosecutor, was discovered dead in a river earlier this month; it is believed that he did not drown. He passed away abruptly while swimming in the Volga, which is the longest river in all of Europe.

An ardent supporter of Putin, Fomin, 57, was the head prosecutor of Chuvashia, a territory located roughly 420 miles east of Moscow.

Andrey Botikov, a Russian scientist who developed the "Sputnik V" vaccine, was strangled with a belt in his flat the same month a Russian millionaire who sold Harry and Meghan their US house in Montecito for £12 million passed away in Moscow at the age of just 56.