A Latvian-American businessman who earned his money in Russia before becoming a critic of Putin has been discovered dead in the US, Russian media has alleged.
Dan Rapoport, an investment banker, is reported to have killed himself in Washington DC in recent days – with the former editor of Russian Tatler magazine saying Tuesday that his dog was discovered in a nearby park with money and a suicide note.
But widow Alena, a Ukrainian virologist, has denied he killed himself – adding ‘there was no note, no suicide’.
She said that an inquiry has been opened into his death, although there does not seem to have been a statement in America that one is underway.
Mr Rapoport resided in DC between 2012 – when he came from Russia during demonstrations again Putin – and 2016, when he went to Kyiv and sold his residence to Ivanka and Jared Trump after Donald Trump’s election triumph.
It was in Kyiv that Mr Rapoport met and married Alena – his second wife – and had a daughter with her.
He seems to have left Kyiv early this year when the conflict with Russia broke out and was spending some time in the US, however it is unknown where he was stationed.
News of Mr demise Rapoport’s first surfaced Tuesday on the Telegram channel of Yuniya Pugacheva, the former editor of Russian Tatler.
Pugacheva stated the finance executive had ‘committed suicide in Washington DC’ before releasing information about the dog and the suicide letter.
She also claimed to have seen Mr Rapoport back in May at London’s upscale Connaught Bar, stating that he was there ‘in the company of young females’.
‘They claim that his wife left him,’ she continued.
But, according to Russian newswire RBC, Alena contested the bulk of that narrative.
She did acknowledge his death, telling the site: ‘To our great grief, the husband and father of our daughter is no longer.’
But, she added: ‘There were no notes, no suicide, no flight to London, no breakup.’
Alena did not explain when precisely her husband had died or suggest an alternate cause of death, but stated investigations are being carried out.
We were scheduled to meet, and he had plans and appointments, she continued.
Dan evacuated us from Kyiv and afterwards went back to aid my nation. After that, we were to meet in the USA.
Mr. Rapoport was vehemently pro-Ukrainian apart from his support for Navalny, who is presently detained in Russia and recently transferred to solitary custody.
His identity as “David Jewberg,” a “Pentagon analyst” and authority on ties between Ukraine and Russia who was regularly cited by the media in both countries, was revealed in 2018 by the investigative website Bellingcat.
Typical “Jewberg” tweets attacked Putin, criticised the conflict he started in Ukraine in 2014, and urged the US to pursue heavier sanctions against him.
In reality, it was discovered that “Jewberg” was fictional, with Mr. Rapoport managing the account with help from a group of associates.
Sergei Tkachenko, Mr. Rapoport’s business partner and co-owner of his Moscow nightclub, also passed away unexpectedly in 2017, and it was believed that he had committed himself.
Mr. Rapoport was born in Latvia, which was then a part of the Soviet Union, and later immigrated to the United States in 1980 with his family after being granted political asylum.
In 1991, the year the Union broke apart, he received his degree from the University of Houston. He subsequently went back to Russia to work in banking and finance.
The fact that Mr. Rapoport owned the well-liked nightclub Soho Rooms helped him establish himself as a well-known figure in post-Soviet Moscow.
But in the midst of a flurry of demonstrations against what were largely seen as stolen elections, he became active in opposition politics in 2011.
He moved back to the US in 2012 with his wife, former model Irina, and their two kids, and stayed there until 2016.
After divorcing his first wife, he sold their home to the Trumps in December of the same year for $5.5 million and moved to Kyiv, where he established a new investment company and reentered politics.
When Putin invaded Ukraine once again in February of this year, he met and married Alena but left the city.
According to Alena, Mr. Rapoport moved his family outside of the nation and spent time there while attempting to have them transported over.
It’s unclear whether he had a permanent residence in the US at the time.