Mystery Over Putin Ally's Private Jet Crash Fuels Speculation

A Russian businessman once awarded by Vladimir Putin's governor for his work for the economy, has been killed in a private jet crash in a remote part of Afghanistan along with his wife, it has been reported, amid mystery surrounding the cause and reports that there were survivors.

Russian security sources said that Anatoly Evsyukov, 65, was among six people on board the Dassault Falcon 10 aircraft when it fell off the radar around 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, before crashing in the Kuf Ab district of Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan, according to the Agentstvo Telegram channel.

Russian state and independent media showed footage purporting to show the crash site in which smoke is seen rising in the air.

Evsyukov was from Volgodonsk in the Rostov region, where he had opened shopping centers, and in 2014, he had received an award from the Putin-appointed regional governor for his work developing the local economy.

He owned three markets markets in Volgodonsk and according to local media, had also ordered the construction of a 48,000 square foot shopping complex.

Kremlin-controlled newspaper Izvestia reported that Evsyukov's wife, Anna, was also on board and they were flying back to Russia in a medical evacuation from Thailand where she had fallen seriously ill. Both were reportedly killed in the crash.

However, four people managed to survive, according to Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, citing reports from Russia's embassy in Afghanistan.

"Local ground search and rescue service found the Falcon 10 aircraft, out of six people on board the aircraft, preliminarily—four are alive (they have various injuries), the fate of two people is being clarified," the statement said.

One was medical worker Igor Syrovkin, 26, who had reached a nearby village, where due to the language barrier, he asked for help using gestures, the Sirena Telegram channel reported. He was taken to Taliban representatives, according to from where he phoned his relatives.

Russian state news agency TASS said that the plane went down due to double engine failure, citing emergency services. Russia's Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case looking into whether safety rules were violated.

As the plane entered Tajikistan, the crew reported a low fuel balance due to a headwind and decided to land in an airfield in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, Izvestia reported.

Sanctions imposed on Russia due to Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine have caused a shortage of spare parts from Western suppliers for aircraft which have undertaken multiple emergency landings in recent months, although it is not clear if this applied to the medical aircraft or was behind this crash.

The aircraft had a Russian registration, RA-09011, and belongs to sports company Atletik Grupp and a private individual, states Rosaviatsia, according to the website Flight Global, which said it had been delivered under a U.S. registration in 1979 and has passed through several operators.

Newsweek has contacted Rosaviatsia for comment.