The anti-Putin Latvian businessman’s Russian business partner was discovered dead in Washington, DC, last week, reportedly after leaping to his death from an apartment building. Three years before, the Russian investor also perished after falling from a tall structure.
On August 14, 52-year-old Dan Rapoport was discovered dead in front of 2400 M Apartments. The businessman, who was born in Latvia, had lived in the US with his first wife before moving to Kyiv with his second wife just before the conflict started.
Family and friends were startled by his passing. Rapoport, an outspoken opponent of Putin, denounced the conflict and made frequent posts on social media about it. Recently, he had been telling his buddies that he had been cheated out of $10,000 by Russian venture investors and that he needed their assistance to “embarrass” them.
Boy, a Ukrainian rescue dog, was dropped off in a park with a suicide note and money fastened to its collar just before the man passed away. Alena, his wife, disputes the police’s claim that he committed suicide.
Rapoport’s passing is uncannily identical to that of Sergey Tkachenko, his business colleague, who passed away in Moscow in 2017.
Tkachenko was shown on camera clinging to an apartment building’s window for dear life before he let go and fell to his death.
At the time, Russian media stated that it was a terrible accident and that he had just been frightening his fiancée.
Together, they managed the renowned Soho Rooms nightclub in Moscow.
Their passing adds to the lengthy list of individuals with ties to Putin who died by shady suicide.
Others include Sergey Protosenya, who was discovered stabbed to death together with his wife and daughter at their Spanish property. He was suspended in the backyard from a tree.
Former Russian bank executive Vladislav Avayev was discovered shot to death in the same month.
Rapoport’s passing brings up dark memories of Soviet spy Walter Krivitsky’s alleged suicide in 1941, when he allegedly leaped to his death in Washington, D.C.
Any idiot may commit a murder, but it takes a great artist to arrange a natural death or commit suicide, as Krivitsky was famous for saying in his inner group.
When he was later discovered dead in Washington, DC, it was long believed that the Kremlin was responsible.
Numerous mysterious deaths among some of Putin’s closest cronies and supporters have occurred during the last year.
Sergei Protosenya’s wife and daughter had also been killed by stabbings when he was discovered dead at his Spanish property in April. He was suspended in the backyard from a tree.
Former Russian bank executive Vladislav Avayev was discovered shot to death in the same month.
On August 14, just before 6 o’clock in the evening, Rapoport, 52, was discovered outside the 2400 M Apartments.
Along with his corpse, his broken smartphone, $2,620 in cash, a keychain with a lanyard, and a broken white headphone, they were all found in the street.
Rapoport, a businessman who oversaw the renowned Soho Rooms nightclub in Moscow, resided in Washington, DC, with his first wife, Irina, from 2012 until 2016.
He had been residing in Kyiv with his small daughter up until last year, together with his second wife, the Ukrainian virologist Alena. He sent them to Denmark when the war broke out in February and then went back to the US with the intention of bringing them across.
However, in recent months, he had been seen in London “surrounded by beauties” at The Connaught Hotel, and he had been telling his foreign pals about how a Russian venture capital company had cheated him out of a $10,000 payment.
Former Russian Tatler editor Yuniya Pugacheva first claimed last week, citing those close to him, that he committed himself after releasing his dog, Boy, with a suicide note and money.
DC DailyMail.com been informed by the Metropolitan Police that although an investigation is continuing, no wrongdoing is suspected. They are awaiting the results of the medical examiner.
Alena, his widow, claims that Pugacheva’s sources are unreliable and that he did not commit suicide.
Rapoport uploaded a chilling picture of Marilyn Brando as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now on Facebook three days before he passed away, captioned: “The horror, the horror.”
He had always been a vocal opponent of the government and had become infatuated with the conflict in Ukraine and Putin’s Army.
In April, he wrote: “I need a tiny favour” to a pal in a Facebook message. I just complained on Facebook about a Russian VC business that tried to rip me off for $10,000.
I would really appreciate a like, a remark, or both. Although I don’t expect to get compensated, I do want to increase their level of public humiliation.
More concerns are raised by the list of objects that were found on or near his corpse after he passed away.
Along with the phone, keychain, headphones, and cash, it also contains a pair of spectacles, an unknown metal object, an orange pair of flip flops, a black cap, and a driver’s licence from the state of Florida.
Rapoport, whose wife is Ukrainian and who was living there before the crisis started, was open in his disapproval of Putin and the violence there.
He intended to bring them to the United States after evacuating his wife.
Between 2012, when he came from Russia during anti-Putin rallies, and 2016, when he relocated to Kyiv and sold his home to Ivanka and Jared Trump in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, Mr. Rapoport resided in DC.
Mr. Rapoport met, wed, and fathered a daughter with his second wife in Kyiv.
The former Russian Tatler editor Yuniya Pugacheva’s Telegram channel was the first to report Mr. Rapoport’s demise on Tuesday.
Before disclosing information regarding the dog and the suicide letter, Pugacheva said that the finance executive had “committed suicide in Washington DC.”
She further said that Rapoport had been seen there in May, “in the company of young females,” at London’s opulent Connaught Bar.
She said, “They claim his wife left him.”
Alena, however, contradicted the most of that allegation in an interview with Russian news outlet RBC.
In a statement to the website, she did acknowledge his passing, saying, “To our great grief, the husband and father of our daughter is no longer.”
Alena did not provide a specific date of death for her husband or give a different reason for his passing, but she did state that investigations are ongoing.
We were scheduled to meet; he had commitments.
Dan took us out of Kiev and then went back to protect my nation. After that, we were to meet in the USA.
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 the account known as “Jewberg” was made up and was controlled by Rapoport with help from a group of associates.
Sergei Tkachenko, 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 suicide.
Rapoport moved to America with his family in 1980 after receiving political asylum; he was born in Latvia during the Soviet era.
In 1991, the year the Union broke up, he received his degree from the University of Houston. He then went back to Russia to work in banking and finance.
Rapoport’s ownership of 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.