A businessman and political activist who played a role in President Vladimir Putin's re-election campaign in 2012 and was named Russia's Lawyer of the Year has been found hanged in Moscow in what investigators said appeared to be suicide, media reported over the weekend.
Dmitry Shumkov was found dead in his apartment in the posh Federation Tower building of the Moscow-City business compound, Investigative Committee spokeswoman Yulia Ivanova said, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday.
His body was found Friday night, and while preliminary conclusions attributed the death to suicide, investigators were still looking into its circumstances, Ivanova was quoted as saying.
A spokesperson for the Moscow police department confirmed that investigators found the body of a man who had died from hanging, but declined to specify whether it was Shumkov, Interfax reported.
Other media reports gave conflicting accounts of his death.
An unidentified law enforcement official was quoted by the state-run TASS news agency on Saturday as saying Shumkov committed suicide in his office, also located in the Moscow-City compound.
The capital's Moskva news portal quoted another unidentified law enforcement official as saying Shumkov's body was discovered in a closet of a restaurant in the same compound.
Shumkov, who was 43 at the time of his death, had begun his career working at a prosecutor's office in the republic of Udmurtia in the 1990s.
He served as chairman of a non-governmental organization called the Federal Law System in 2012. While in this role, he questioned the validity of foreign observers' accounts that reported multiple election violations at the 2012 presidential balloting.
Shumkov was named Russia's Lawyer of the Year in December 2012, along with several other public figures, the RBC news agency reported at that time.
He held various business interests, including investment in the rebuilding of Moscow's historic central districts and stakes in the Olympic sports complex in Moscow.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Shumkov held investment in the Norilsk Nickel mining company.
Contact the author at newsreporter@imedia.ru
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