Russian judge Natalia Larina was found dead after falling from a window
A prominent Russian judge has died after mysteriously falling from a high-rise building in Moscow.
Natalia Larina, 50, was known for convicting enemies of the Kremlin as well as high profile criminal cases.
She was found dead close to her apartment block on 1st Mashinostroeniya Street.
An investigation into the death has been launched, with police checking claims she had lost a large sum of money to a ‘telephone scammer’, state media reports.
Sources say she became upset she had been ‘deceived’ and left a note.
However, so far there has been no official confirmation of this version.
Ms Larina – who had a young daughter – was a criminal judge for more than 15 years, and her death came months after she suddenly quit Tagansky Court.
Her body was found close to where she lived on 1st Mashinostroeniya Street, Moscow (Credits: Yandex Maps/ East2west News)
In 2015, she remanded in custody artist Pyotr Pavlensky who set fire to a door of the FSB building in Lubyanka Square in a political protest.
Earlier she gave a judgement against the hardline National Bolsheviks.
In 2011, Ms Larina sentenced Ministry of Transport official Vladimir Makarov, accused of sexually abusing his daughter.
She also acted as a judge in various high profile fraud cases.
Several high profile figures in Russia have died in mysterious circumstances in recent years, often falling from high buildings or suddenly becoming ill.
In February a prominent military blogger was found dead, reportedly by suicide, after disclosing Vladimir Putin’s colossal losses in eastern Ukraine.
Pro-war correspondent Andrei ‘Murz’ Morozov revealed that 16,000 soldiers were killed in the battle for Avdiivka.
Ms Larina was known for convicting Kremlin foes (Picture: Channel1/East2west News)
In December the body of Vladimir Putin ally, Vladimir Egorov, 46, was found dead following a suspected fall from a third-floor window.
He was a member of the ruling United Russia party and prominent politician in the oil-rich Tobolsk region in western Siberia.
Earlier that month, the deputy editor of Putin’s ‘favourite newspaper’ was been found dead at her home in mysterious circumstances.
Anna Tsareva, 35, worked for pro-Putin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and was found unresponsive at her home in Moscow this morning.
Her death came just a year after her former boss also died in a suspicious manner following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And in July last year, veteran Russian diplomat Alexander Nikolayev, 72, died three weeks after falling victim to a mysterious attack near his country house in the Tver region.
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