A leading Russian biologist may have been engaged on Covid-19 vaccine research in Britain when he fell 14 floors to his death, it is claimed.
Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kagansky, 45, best known for his work on fighting cancer and who had longstanding links to Edinburgh University, was also reported to have been on ‘sedatives’ when he died in St Petersburg.
The cancer researcher and microbiologist had a stab wound when he fell wearing only his underwear from a high rise building in St Petersburg, say reports.
Izvestia newspaper reported that Kagansky was ‘actively involved in the development of a vaccine against coronavirus‘ at a laboratory in Edinburgh – but gave no further details.
It is the latest in a series of mysterious deaths in Russia involving people with connections to coronavirus falling out of windows.
Russian biologist Alexander Kagansky (pictured) had a stab wound when he fell wearing only his underwear from a high rise building in St Petersburg, reports say
A ‘friend’ initially detained as a potential murder suspect in Kagansky’s death has been released by Russian police after passing a polygraph test.
The globetrotting scientist is believed to have split his time between Scotland, where he had family, St Petersburg, where he died, and Vladivostok on Russia’s Pacific coast where he was an assistant professor.
He was reported to have an ‘exhausting schedule’.
Other Russian reports also indicated he was working on a vaccine, but none gave clear details, and Izvestia alone suggested this research was in the UK.
Igor Ivanov, 45, the ‘childhood friend’ who was briefly detained, told police that Kagansky took sedatives and stabbed himself in the abdomen with a knife before suddenly running to a balcony and jumping.
‘Ivanov’s version was checked – and he passed the polygraph,’ reported Mash online news outlet – which has close links to law enforcement.
No signs of a fight were found. Sedative Melatonin Evalar, used by jet lag sufferers to adjust the body’s sleep schedule, was reportedly found in the flat.
It is described as having an ‘adaptogenic, sedative, hypnotic effect’.
Ivanov also told police that the scientist had suffered problems with alcohol and psychoactive substances, say reports.
The men had been celebrating Ivanov’s birthday the day before his death.
The building in St Petersburg where the Russian scientist is said to have fallen to his death
Kagansky (pictured) may have been engaged on Covid-19 vaccine research in Britain when he fell 14 floors to his death, it is claimed
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a murder probe, which remains in place despite the potential suspect’s release.
Kagansky had worked in Edinburgh for 13 years before becoming head of the Centre for Genomic Regenerative Medicine of the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.
However, Russian reports say he maintained academic links in Edinburgh where his family lived.
Between 2005 and 2012, he worked at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Edinburgh, as a postdoctoral research associate then a senior research associate.
He had recently received a Russian grant to study new ways of diagnosing and treating malignant brain tumours.
He was an advocate of research into the uses of herbs and mushrooms as potentially offering solutions in treating cancers.
Earlier he had studied and worked in the US.
In 1991 as the USSR collapsed he was the first Russian delegate to the European Youth Parliament. He was also a member of Young Academy of Scotland.
The death follows six Russians plunging to their deaths from hospital windows earlier this year.
Police lieutenant-colonel Natalya Shcherbakova (pictured), 45, died after a 50ft fall on May 30 – with her family believing that drugs used to treat her coronavirus infection may have altered her state of mind
Yelena Nepomnyashchaya (left) and Natalya Lebedeva (right) – also fell to their deaths from hospital windows. Nepomnyashchaya had complained about PPE shortages while Lebedeva was being treated for Covid-19
Alexander Shulepov (left) also suffered severe head injuries after falling from a hospital window after criticising the Russian government’s response to coronavirus
Five of the victims were being treated for coronavirus whilst one victim was a doctor who had complained about PPE shortages. Another doctor fell from a hospital window, but he survived and remains in hospital with head injuries.
Nadezhda Salkova, age 74, fell in June from a fourth floor window of Semashko Hospital in Moscow where she was undergoing treatment for coronavirus.
She had been alone in a hospital room where she had been undergoing treatment for nearly three weeks, and the circumstances of her 40ft fall are under investigation by police.
Ten days earlier, a 68-year-old man suffering from Covid-19 plunged to his death from a window in the intensive care ward of Veterans’ Hospital in Yaroslavl.
It has also emerged that a man, 49, with confirmed coronavirus fell 60ft from the window of a Moscow hospital which was reassigned to treat pandemic victims.
The family of police lieutenant-colonel Natalya Shcherbakova, 45, who died after a 50ft fall on May 30, believe that drugs used to treat her coronavirus may have altered her state of mind.
She and her widower Konstantin were both senior police forensic experts, and her distraught family have called for checks on the medicines and their mind-changing impact.
Dr Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, 47, a mother of two from a medical family, sustained fatal injuries after falling 50ft from a window at her Krasnoyarsk hospital.
She fell soon after complaining of an ‘acute shortage’ of PPE and died on 1 May, the only one of the victims who was not known to be suffering from coronavirus.
Dr Natalya Lebedeva, 48, was hospitalised with Covid-19 when she plunged 60ft to her death on 24 April after she was ‘unfairly blamed’ for the spread of coronavirus at her clinic in Star City, near Moscow, the training centre for cosmonauts.
Dr Alexander Shulepov, 37, remains in hospital with head injuries after plunging from a second floor window sustaining skull fractures.
He was diagnosed with Covid-19 and had complained about PPE shortages and being made to work despite suffering from the virus.
His wife Maria Shulepova was banned from speaking to the media over the incident.