Under unclear circumstances, the vice president of Transneft, Russia’s largest pipeline company, has died, according to Russian state media reports on July 4, 2025. The deceased has been identified as 62-year-old Andrei Badalov, one of the most senior and high-ranking government officials in Russia. He was found dead after falling from the window of his luxury home in Rublyovka, an upscale suburb of Moscow.
Transneft confirmed the death of its vice president but did not comment on the circumstances surrounding the incident, which has once again sparked speculation about how yet another high-ranking executive within Russia’s energy sector lost his life in such a tragic manner.
‘A body belonging to Andrei Badalov was found beneath the broken window of his home,’ said an unnamed police source to the state news agency TASS. ‘The preliminary cause of death is suicide,’ the security source added, noting that a preliminary investigation is currently underway.
Badalov was appointed vice president of Transneft in July 2021 and was responsible for overseeing the digital transformation of the oil giant, which has been heavily impacted by Western sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His unexplained and suspicious death adds to a growing list of similar incidents involving senior executives in Russia’s energy sector since the war began in February 2022.
Notably, at least four deaths in 2022 were linked to Gazprom, the state-owned energy giant.