Spy close to Vladimir Putin's foreign intelligence chief dies mysteriously

Top-secret Russian oil magnate Vyacheslav Rovneiko, who was a former spy and close to Vladimir Putin's foreign intelligence chief, has died under mysterious circumstances near Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin (

Image: AFP/Getty Images)

A well-connected former spy close to Vladimir Putin's foreign intelligence chief has died in mysterious circumstances near Moscow.

Vyacheslav Rovneiko, 59, was "found unconscious" late at night at his home in an elite village.

Doctors were unable to save him and the circumstances of his death were unclear.

However, an investigation is ongoing.

Reports of his mysterious death state that "no signs of violent death were found on his body".

The mysterious Rovneiko is said to have been a Cold War-era KGB spy working in Belgium with Sergei Naryshkin, now head of the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence agency.

He was also reportedly close to billionaire Gennady Timchenko, considered one of Putin's most loyal oligarchs.

A man without a face - overview of a company profile on Vyacheslav Rovneiko by one of the Russian business websites (

Picture:

social media/e2w)

Rovneiko's former business partner was Leonid Dyachenko, whose then-wife Tatiana was the powerful daughter of President Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first president.

The duo founded Urals Energy, one of the major oil players they were involved with. The oil company was then introduced in London in 2005.

He had business interests linked to Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg and Cyprus, according to reports, and also allegedly held a Belgian passport in 2006.