Meanwhile:
high-ranking Russian official, with close financial ties to Vladimir Putin, was found dead on Tuesday evening - Law enforcement agencies told the outlet that the death was preliminarily ruled a suicide, some have cast doubt on this account - Konstantin Zavizenov's body was found by his son at a country house in the Istra district of Moscow
He had been on a drinking binge for "a week and a half" prior to his death, according to the largely pro-Kremlin news website Lenta
At the time of Zavizenov's appointment, the firm, one of the country's largest energy companies, was headed by Boris Kovalchuk
Kovalchuk is a Russian billionaire business owner and oligarch who has criticized the Russian president, as "the de facto second man in Russia," and by American government-funded Radio Liberty as "Putin's personal banker."