Veteran Russian diplomat Alexander Nikolayev, 72, has died three weeks after falling victim to a mysterious attack near his country house in the Tver region. 

Nikolayev, who had previously served as the senior Russian diplomat in Crimea before the region’s annexation by Vladimir Putin, was brutally beaten in an undisclosed incident.

Nikolayev was reportedly ‘covered in blood, haematomas and bruises’, and unable to breathe without a ventilator after the violent attack, his family claimed,  before accusing Russian police of failing to properly investigate the assault.

Despite being rushed to one of Moscow’s top hospitals, Nikolayev remained in a coma and eventually succumbed to his injuries.

Following his work in Crimea, Nikolayev later served as the Russian ambassador to Bangladesh before transitioning to working for Rosatom, the state nuclear energy corporation, in 2016.

His murder was later highlighted by Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko as the latest in a series of suspicious deaths of those with high-ranking connections to the Russian energy sector.

The family of Nikolayev sought the assistance of renowned Russian human rights expert and journalist Eva Merkacheva to investigate his death.

She revealed that a local Cossack leader, who had close ties to the police, confessed to having an altercation with an unidentified individual whom he pushed.

The incident occurred near a shop in a village near Konakovo town in the Tver region.

The Cossack leader, Alexander Konopenko, is currently under house arrest, and the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into Nikolayev’s death. 

From 2003 to 2008, Nikolayev served as Russia’s Consul-General in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, before the peninsula’s forceful annexation by Putin in 2014.

Nikolayev, survived by his wife and two daughters, adds to the list of mysterious deaths associated with the Russian energy sector since the conflict with Ukraine began. 

While the precise nature of Nikolayev’s role at Rosatom remains unclear, the circumstances surrounding his demise raise significant concerns.

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