Igor Volobuev, vice president of state-owned Gazprombank, has confirmed that he has fled Russia and will fight with the Ukrainians against Kremlin forces after two other top executives were found dead in their homes
london, 2013. 2018, the attempted murder by deadly russian nerve agent novichok, a former spy sergei skripal and his daughter. so too in russia, putin critic alexey navalny poisoned, nearly killed with novichok, in 2020. but one russian death in particular has uncanny parallels with avayev s, death inside a locked apartment, a not entirely dissimilar to boris borizovski s death. maxim broden fell from his fifth floor balcony, a thousand miles from moscow. his neighbors found his body here, crumpled in the street. his death a mystery. i covered his death. when officials spoke, many felt there was a cover-up.
a spokesman for the interior ministry tells us his apartment was locked from the inside, a fact he says that indicates no one left the apartment, most likely, he says, there were no strangers in there. broden s journalist colleagues didn t buy the official line either. translator: according to our sources, this is obviously not var verified, but they re saying it was a targeted action on someone s order. reporter: there is no evidence protosenya or avayev were putin critics. there is evidence, however, that despite kremlin demands for loyalty among the elite, some previously silent putin allies are coming out against him. today, as putin s war polarizes russians, for and against, suspicions of shady kremlin killings will likely linger long
russia s state news agency says moscow police are investigating the deaths of avayev and his family as a murder/suicide. tantamount to saying nothing suspicious here. spanish police are now guarding protosenya s luxury house north of barcelona. an official source close to the investigation says the bodies of his wife and daughter, which showed signs of violence, were found inside the home, and protosenya s body was found outside in the garden. the neighbors described them as wealthy, but often traveling. translator: he had nice cars. i thought they were romanian from what i understood. and, besides, you could see they were people with money. reporter: the investigative source says spanish police have sealed their probe into the deaths. no leaks that might prejudge their case.
after moscow s investigators close avayev s case. nic robertson, cnn, brussels. thank you. they are called the butchers of bucha. this week russian president vladimir putin honored the group that ukrainian officials say is behind some of the most horrific images we have seen since the war in ukraine began. yeah, cnn s brian todd has a look at how putin is normalizing these atrocities. and, listen, i want to give you a head s up here, some of the images in this story are really hard to digest, stomach turning. i want you to be ready for that because it does show the brutality of what happened in bucha. reporter: russia s vladimir putin has bestowed a prestigious award on a military unit allegedly involved in the brutality of bucha at kyiv. awarding the title of guards to the 64th separate guards motor rifle brigade.