The former prime minister of an oil-rich Russian region has died after he was rammed by a car while crossing a street.
Magomed Abdulayev, 61, died from severe injuries in Makhachkala city. He was hit by a car crossing Magomed Gadzhiev Street when he was hit by a Niva.
Abdulayev had been premier of oil-rich Dagestan region from 2010 to 2013, and was appointed when Medvedev was Kremlin president.
Ukraine immediately suggested this was the latest in a succession of Russian deaths in the past year dominated by Vladimir Putin’s war.
Abdulayev, also a former rector of Dagestan State Pedagogical University, was crossing Magomed Gadzhiev Street when he was hit by a Niva car.
The driver was reported to be aged 55 but it was not disclosed whether or not he had been detained or arrested.
Pedestrian Abdulayev was crossing the road at an unauthorised point, said reports.
He had been premier of oil-rich Dagestan region from 2010 to 2013, and was appointed when Medvedev was Kremlin president.
Medvedev – a close ally of Putin and a bellicose blogger on the war in Ukraine – had known him since they were graduate students at St Petersburg State University, say reports.
Medvedev, 57, is currently the deputy to Putin on Russia’s security council, and has been called his closest political ally, heading his United Russia party.
His death comes less than two months after Putin’s man in occupied Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, 45, was killed in a car crash when his armoured Lexus was torn apart.
Russia has been hit by a number of ‘suspicious’ deaths – many linked to the energy sector – since tension escalated ahead of Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
