The Suspicious Death of Vasily Mikhailovich Tarasyuk
The death of Vasily Mikhailovich Tarasyuk – a Russian millionaire and member of the State Duma for the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party – in the Dead Sea in Israel has passed many people by.
What I find interesting and rather odd about this is the fact that Tarasyuk – a prominent figure in his political party whose leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky is a virulent opponent of all things jewish despite being himself a member of the tribe – (1) should decide to holiday in Israel of all places when he is a confirmed public opponents of the jews.
I suppose you could chalk it up to simple curiosity, but it does seem decidedly odd that he would choose Israel at a time of strong tensions between Moscow and Tel Aviv over Iran and its involvement in the ongoing Syrian Civil War. (2)
Whatever way you want to cut it: it just seems decidedly odd.
Further the reports on Tarasyuk’s death are contradictory.
Pravda Report asserts that he was actually swimming in the Dead Sea when he got into trouble. (3)
The Times of London and Haaretz both state that he ‘got into trouble’ at some point while swimming, (4) while RusReality’s summary of the media coverage on this in Russia suggests that he got into difficulty on the shore. (5)
You can chalk this up to media confusion I suppose, but again: it is just odd that we cannot get any idea of where he died.
Was he on the shore or actually swimming in the water?
The problem you see is that – as Haaretz observed in 2010 – people don’t drown in the water of the Dead Sea itself as a rule: they trip, fall and swallow the water. (6)
So if Tarasyuk was actually swimming in the water then it begs the question: how did he actually die?
If the Russian media is accurate then he likely died innocently, but Western and Israeli media seems to think he was actually swimming which suggests something is rotten in Denmark.
Will we ever really know?
I doubt it, but it is interesting to speculate that Tarasyuk might have been murdered by the Israelis or Islamists, because of his political position as both a prominent Russian politician and a broad supporter of the policies of Vladimir Putin. (7)
Stranger things have happened.
References
(1) http://hamodia.com/2017/05/11/120148/
(2) https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/israel-russia-syria/520410/; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/20/russia-summons-israeli-ambassador-explain-air-raids-syria; http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.783341; http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/1.782265
(3) http://www.pravdareport.com/news/society/stories/10-05-2017/137692-ldpr_mp_dies-0/
(4) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russian-politician-drowns-in-the-dead-sea-lvbb5mnsh; http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.788547
(5) https://rusreality.com/2017/05/10/in-the-liberal-democratic-party-confirmed-the-death-of-deputy-tarasyuk/
(6) http://www.haaretz.com/think-that-swimming-in-dead-sea-is-safe-think-again-1.308878
(7) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russian-politician-drowns-in-the-dead-sea-lvbb5mnsh; http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.788547