Russian found dead onboard cargo ship in Odisha, 3rd death of Russian in fortnight

BHUBANESWAR/JAGATSINGHPUR: A Russian merchant marine sailor was found dead on board a cargo ship at Paradip port’s anchorage on Tuesday. His death comes two weeks after the back-to-back deaths of Russian national Vladimir Bydanov and his friend, the Russian lawmaker and Putin critic Pavel Antov, at a hotel in Odisha’s Rayagada district.
Sergy Milyakov (51), the chief engineer of the Mumbai-bound ship that came from Chittagong, Bangladesh, to take iron ore at Paradip port, in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur, might have died of a heart attack, police sources said.


“So far we have not found any indication of foul play. The exact cause of his death will be ascertained after a post-mortem,” DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal said.
The DGP said the Odisha crime branch, which has been probing the deaths of Pavel and Bydanov, may be entrusted with the investigation of Milyakov’s death as well.

Milyakov collapsed in his cabin onboard the ship in the early hours of Tuesday. The ship had a total 23 crew members, including a few Indians. The ship’s captain, Pod Kolzin Dmitry, who is also said to be a Russian, informed the Paradip Port Authority. “We will video-graph the autopsy and preserve the body. His family will be contacted with the help of the Russian consulate general in Kolkata,” SP Akhileshvar Singh said.

It must be noted that Bydanov died of a suspected heart attack on December 22, 2022 while Pavel fell to death from the same hotel under mysterious circumstances, two days later. A few days ago, another Russian refugee and Putin-critic, suddenly went missing from Bhubaneswar railway station and was later traced by the police the next day.