Amid the bloodshed in Ukraine by the Russian forces, a Ukrainian Oligarch was found dead in his UK mansion, police revealed on Thursday. An investigation is underway into the incident. Authorities were called to Mikhail Watford's home in Surrey, just outside London, on Monday at midday. The body of the 66-year-old oligarch was found by a gardener on the Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water, Surrey, on Monday.
Authorities couldn't 'explain' the conditions surrounding Watford's death but did not indicate that the circumstances appeared 'suspicious.' The conditions around the Ukrainian tycoon's death remained 'unexplained.' According to The Sun, a father of three, Mikhail Watford was found hanging in his garage.
Watford's friends and associates raised questions over the timing of his death.
Suspicious
"His state of mind might have been affected by the situation in Ukraine. The timing of his death and the invasion of Ukraine was surely not coincidental," a family friend noted. Another unnamed associate said that speculation about Watford's death is natural given the suspicious deaths of Russian nationals and associates in the Uk.
Watford had made his fortune in oil and gas after the downfall of the Soviet Union. He lived in an £18 million mansion with his Estonian wife, Jane, their two children, and an older son from his first marriage. Born Mikhail Tolstosheya in Ukraine, Watford changed his surname after he moved to the UK in 2015.
'Mikhail had Everything to Live for'
The couple was featured in a Sunday Times property article when they were selling their house in 2015. Watford later moved to Dormy House, a period villa divided into apartments. His Russian mother, who lived next door, was at home on the day his body was found.
"It is truly shocking as Mikhail had everything to live for. He had a beautiful wife, children, and dream home. It makes no sense at all," a source said.
Surrey police noted on Thursday that an 'investigation into the circumstances of the death is underway but it is not believed there are any suspicious circumstances at this time.'
