EXILED Russian Nikolai Glushkov has been found dead at his London home, Russian media has reported.
Glushkov, who was a close friend of one-time Putin ally Boris Berezovsky, reportedly died at the age of 69.
Media tycoon Demyan Kudryavtysev shared a tribute to his friend and former deputy director of Aeroflo on social media, adding: “We have friends in common.
“They told me about his death. I do not know anything about the exact cause, but he was not young.
“He died in London, in his house.”
The lawyer of Glushkov also confirmed his death to Russia’s business FM radio station.
The radio station reported that Glushkov had been suffering from a rare blood disease hemochromatosis, which causes your body to absorb too much iron from your food.
Glushkov lived in the UK, in a home in Kingston, South West London, after being granted political asylum in the country in 2010.
He was tried in absentia in Moscow, sentenced to eight years behind bars over allegations of stealing $123m from Aeroflot.
His friend Berezovsky was once a powerful friend of the Vladimir Putin, but fled to London in 2000 after falling out with the Russian President.
Berezovsky was found dead in 2013 in an apparent suicide but an inquest into his death recorded an open verdict.
Glushkov has previously revealed that he did not believe his friend Berezovsky’s death was due to natural causes.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2013, he said: “I will never believe in the natural death of Boris Berezovsky.”
You go against the little big man, you die.