July 19, 2023 • 30 mins
In September 2022 the former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute fell down some stairs at work and died instantly. Why is this suspicious? To clarify that we have to ask two questions… How does the head of a scientific research institute amass great wealth on a normal salary? What was his role within the Ukraine war?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists,
was poisoned, murdered his whole family. Last year, more than
a dozen Russian oligarchs died in the space of nine months.
(00:21):
Many of the deaths are suspicious with links to the Kremlin.
This is sad Oligach, an investigation into these recently dead
Russian billionaires. It's created by me jake Hanrahan and my
colleague Sergey Slipchenko. Sad Oligarch is a h eleven production
for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio. In this episode, we're going
(00:50):
to be looking into someone with quite a different profile.
This case is not about a rich Russian businessman, but
a rich Russian scientist. He was a friend of the
Kremlin and he died in mysterious circumstances. The Russian police
quickly swept the case under the rug, categorizing it as
an accident, but we think there's more to it. On
(01:14):
September twenty one, twenty twenty two, anatotally Garishchenko seventy three,
was visiting the Moscow Aviation Institute the Mai. He had
a new role at the institute as an advisor to
the current director, after some serious drama had unfolded previously.
Until twenty fifteen, Garishchenko was the head of the institute,
(01:36):
making him an official point of contact for the Kremlin.
By all accounts, he was even an ally of Putin.
As Garishchenko made his way down some steps at the institute,
he apparently tripped and fell. He tumbled hard down several
flights of stairs. By the time he got to the bottom,
(01:58):
he was dead. According to an unnamed source in the
Kremlin linked newspaper Zvestia, Garishchenko died there and then on
the grounds of the institute. There are quote Erishchenko fell
from a great height, flying down several flights of stairs.
Medicks arrived at the scene of the incident and pronounced
(02:19):
him dead ends quote. It must have been a heavy fall.
Garishchenko was fairly old, sure, but he was neither unfit
nor unwell. In fact, in photos he looks really good
for his age. Presumably he'd bashed his head in on
the steps on the way down, or perhaps broken his neck.
(02:41):
We don't know for sure, as no official autopsy was
ever released to the public. Moscow Aviation Institute released a
statement at the time of Garishchenko's death, saying, quote the
death was the result of an accident. His untimely demise
was a colossal loss for the m AI and the
scientific and pedagogical community end quote. Garishchenko had worked in
(03:07):
aviation since nineteen seventy seven. ATMAI, he was a lead engineer,
chief mechanic and vice director for the development of the
institute's complex and social issues. From two thousand and seven
to twenty fifteen, he was the head director of the MAAI.
He published more than one hundred scientific papers and articles.
(03:30):
So what does the death of a scientist have to
do with sad oligach and a totally Garishchenko wasn't just
any scientist, and the Moscow Aviation Institute isn't just any
research center. Both are heavily linked to the Kremlin.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Moscow Aviation Institute was established in nineteen thirty so it
goes back to Soviet days.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's Arab Shabanian, a researcher with a special focus on aviation,
specifically in the context of global unrest and authoritarian countries.
I spoke to him to get an idea of the
cooperation between the MAI and the Russian government.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The name makes it sound like it's an independent university
of some kind, but it's really not. It's they work
for the Russian government and they have since the days
of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union broke up,
the Russian government became almost the sole contractor with this,
with this university, and so a lot of the greats
in Russian and Soviet history went through this this institute.
(04:35):
Your Sukhoy's, your mccoyen's, your Illusians, Tupelevs, you know, all
these famous aircraft names are folks who went through this institute,
including the man who invented the AK forty seven and
mister Koalashtikov, he is also an alumni of the institute.
So that's the background there is that it's been very
tight in with the government, at least as far as
(04:56):
arms production and manufacturing goes.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So when it says aviation, it's a lot more than that.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I mean, it's aviation based, but it's more electrotechnical. They
have several different schools. They have like aeronautical engineering, but
they also have remote controls for flying vehicles, so you
can imagine how that would be useful for more than
just aircraft. They have like robotics and intelligence systems, astronomics,
(05:22):
business engineering, things like that, social engineering, anything that can
be related to aeronautics in some way happens at this institute.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
It's more than just learning how to fly right. And
what kind of connection would this aviation institute have with
let's say the military in Russia.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Think of it like any of the defense contractors in
the US, but kind of on steroids, right, Like, at
least in the US, your lockheeds and your raytheons are
probably going to supply some of America's allies from time
to time. Whereas the design bureaus that are supported by
this institute pretty much exclusively sell to the Russian government,
(06:07):
who then it sells to outside customers. So their sole customer,
their prime customer and prime interest is the Russian government.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So this guy, Gusha Chenklo, he was the head for
many many years of the institute. Then there was some
kind of drama and then someone else was the head.
But anyway, this guy was elected twice in a row.
He made a lot of money through that. What kind
of connection would the head of an institute like this
(06:38):
have with the Kremlin. How direct would it be, do
you think?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I mean, I think it would be very direct. I
mean the same in Russia happens in other countries right
where this guy's name may be on the designs, but
we both know one dude didn't design a fighter jet.
There was a whole team behind him. But he's the
guy who's gotten favor with the government. He's the government's
favorite guy in this case. So to see him from
voted to the head of the institute means that he's
(07:02):
at least friendly with the Kremlin. They wouldn't promote somebody
to the head of this institute who was not friendly
or was an unknown entity. They wouldn't want that. And
I think that seeing the previous leader fall kind of
proves that if you're not entirely subservient to what the
Kremlin wants, you might have an accident. I'm not saying
that's what happened, but that's what I would suspect.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So, as you can see, this aviation scientist suddenly becomes
a lot more relevant to this series. So who actually
was anatotally Garishchenko? Anatotally Garishchenko born in nineteen forty nine,
worked at the Moscow Aviation Institute for most of his career.
(07:45):
He first got a job there in nineteen ninety seven,
working his way up with varying progressive roles in engineering
at the MAI. By all accounts, Garishchenko was very popular
at his workplace. He was good at what he did well,
liked and managed the institute well when he was first
elected as the rector or, the head of the Moscow
(08:07):
Aviation Institute in two thousand and seven. He was then
elected a second time as the rector in twenty twelve.
As Aramunmi discussed, the MAI works hand in hand with
the Kremlin, so much so that Grishchenko was given several
prestigious awards by the Russian government. Notably, he was awarded
(08:29):
the Medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland.
This medal is a big deal for Russian citizens in
favor of Putin's government. The medal is split into different
categories for civilians and military, from first class to fourth class.
It's awarded to Russians for quote outstanding contributions to the
(08:52):
state associated with the development of Russian statehood, advances in labor, peace,
friendship and cooperation between nations, or for significant contributions to
the defense of the fatherland. Ends quote. My guess is
seen as Garishchenko worked in aviation, he was awarded this medal.
(09:12):
For the latter half of that statement, generally, if you're
given this medal, it means Putin likes you. Aram explains.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
It's not like the Medal of Honor in the US,
which is awarded for military prowess and has to be
passed by Congress. This is something that can be given
to people by the Kremlin who the Kremlin likes. It's
like how Trump gave what's his name that radio show
hosts the Presidential Medal of Freedom, right where it's like
(09:42):
it kind of loses meaning after a while because it's
just like, oh, look, all your friends happen to have
this medal. Isn't that weird? Huh?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
That's interesting. But I would then say, then that probably
shows that he was quite in favor in Putin's favorite.
It's not just reports, oh he was an ally. That
suggests to me like, yeah, that's the real deal. Definitely
friends with this guy, at least on a level of
where he's used for them kind of friends, right.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Exactly, they were friends. Emphasis on were But yeah, I
mean it's kind of like, you know, if I've got
the power to hand up medals on my homies, they're
going to be decked out in metals. That's the way
it's going to go.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So it's clear Garishchenko was in good standing with the Kremlin.
He got middles Awards and was the head of the
Moscow Aviation Institute, which helped advance technology that assists the
Kremlin's war efforts all across the world. Garrischenko was Putin's
guy until he wasn't. Twenty fifteen, storm broke out at
(10:54):
the m AI serious upheaval assist the universe and research institute.
The similarly named Moscow Institute of Technological Aviation was shut
down as it was considered an economic drain. The head
of this now closed down university, Alexander Rogertsinski, was sent
(11:16):
to the MAI to replace Garrishchenko with no election. No
one voted him in as they had with Garishchenko twice.
No one even knew this guy was coming to take over.
This caused a lot of trouble at the MAI. Surgery
explained the.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Moscow Aviation Institute to the one that remained while the
other one got shut down. Is actually apparently like a
really really big deal. It's kind of like the only
institute that focuses on like aerospace and aviation for Russia,
and they basically train everybody in the They call it
like life cycle of aviation, so like from engineers to
(11:56):
maintenance to researchers, and from what understood, it's the biggest
and essentially the only place that does that in Russia.
So Anatoly Greshenko, you know, the one that passed away.
He got elected as a director in twentousand and seven,
reelected twenty twelve, and his contract was actually expiring in
(12:17):
twenty fifteen. From one understand it seemed like he was
going to get reelected again, but before that happened, a
sister institute was kind of being run into the ground
by Rojasinsky. So the guy that eventually replaced him, he's
definitely he definitely like gets the blame for it.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I found like a video on some kind.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Of Russian talk show where he's being questioned like why
is the university failing to produce graduates? Why is the
university like ranking poorly things like that, and they're kind
of they're basically pushing the blame onto him as like
the director for failing to have results. And that's in
twenty fourteen. So the Russian Department of Education decided that
(12:57):
it's losing money, it's not producing results.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
They shut it down.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
But obviously, you know, all these the buildings, intact, a
lot of professors are still there. They essentially merged it
with the Moscow Aviation Institute, and MAI basically absorbed it
and over like oversaw all the projects, all the studies
that were going at the other institute. And for whatever reason,
(13:21):
the Education department decided to install Razjatsinski without being elected,
without really consulting with anyone. For whatever reason, they decided that, like,
this guy's going to be in charge.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
So then they bring in a new guy without any election.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, they just basically said this guy is going to
be in charge.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Now.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
This is the guy that ran the sister university into
the ground, but for some reason, the Russian government decided
to put him in charge in place of Garishchenko, who
kept the MAI thriving. The sister university was doing so
badly it had to be closed merged with the one
that was doing well. So then the head of the
failing Uni is then put in charge of the thriving one.
(14:02):
It makes no sense. And then when roger Zinsky was
put in charge, he wanted Gerrishenko out immediately, even though
the guy didn't have long left on his contract.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Initially he was supposed to wait for Geishenko to well,
his contract was like coming up in I think it
was the summer twenty fifteen, and so was from that
point where like all this was happening. It says it
said that there was two months left right for Geishchenko
to leave. Anyways, So there's Jasinski receiving a lot of
(14:34):
backlash from students, from professors. He almost got like, I
don't know, mad or upset about it, and he removed
Getashchenko almost overnight.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Not only was Gerrishchenko removed from his position prematurely by
an inept guy who the government route forced into the MAI,
but he was completely wiped out from the organization. His
name was removed from everywhere immediately. This after four twenty
years of loyal service.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
He was removed from the website, completely gone. Like there's
other directors, like previous directors. So these guys were used
to work here, you know, Geroshinko was completely like deleted
off the website, replaced by Rajasinski. His office was cleared out,
name played removed to replaced toward the Rajasinski's. It was
like overnight the news came out and then the next
(15:23):
day he was gone, no kind of warning he was gone.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
This reminds me slightly of what happened to Alexander to Yolokov,
the Gazprom executive from episode two. He had all his
images wiped from the Gazprom records within twenty four hours
of being found dead at his home. He worked there
in prestigious positions for more than twenty years. Similarly, Garishenko's
(15:51):
profile was removed overnight from the MAI after decades of
service to the organization. His though, was before he even died.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And again, this is two months before the contract was
supposed to end anyway, so they could have just waited
for him to run up his contract and then quietly
like replace him.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Shortly after this happened, Rajetsinski went on a scorched earth
campaign as the newly installed head of the Moscow Aviation Institute.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Immediately, Rojasinski started big and dictator basically any professor who
continued to protest the change or backing get a shink
In any way kind of like defending him, saying like
he should have stayed got fired. A lot of people
lost funding for their programs, their studies, whatever they were
working on. From what I can understand as punishment for
(16:40):
supporting Getashinko. They either lost funding or their projects were
fully like shut down.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So after running the MAI for years with great popularity
and efficiency, Garishchenko was removed and this lunatic was installed
without anyone voting him in. This guy then recked apply,
acting like a dictator and ruining people's research if they
dared to speak out against him. Now, Surgery and Me,
(17:08):
Doug and Doug into why this guy Rojetzinsky was installed,
But none of it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I can't explain it. The only I can think of
is he had better connections with the Education Department.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
What did become apparent, though, is that not only was
Rojetzinsky a hot head, he was a total fraud throughout
this whole thing.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
It was kind of like a couple of months where
students were protesting, professors were speaking out about it. This
online group found that his PhD thesis, the certation, whatever,
the thing that got him to PhD was like eighty
percent plagiarized.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Almost his entire thesis was stolen, and yet there he
was the new head of Russia's most prestigious aviation institute.
The only explanation I can think of is that someone
up in the Kremlin wanted him there for reasons we
don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
For a year Roja since key kind of one article
says rain terror on academia, and they say he kind
of continued to fuck things up for the institute. From
what I can understand, people are basically saying he's like
a fraud. And to begin with, I think his like
study area or whatever. It's like economics, so not exactly
related to aerospace and aviation. It's kind of weird. And
(18:21):
also like this is a you know, it's an academic position,
so you'd kind of think, like, okay, like why is
there so much drum about this?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Who cares for this?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Especially if you're not passionate about it, but especially with
the MAI. It gets a load of funding from the state.
They're getting probably billions of rubles a year, and the
director gets to decide who gets what, Like I said,
to punish people, he froze at he's froze like funding.
You know, he can do that, he can redirect it,
he can send it elsewhere, and I'm sure he's more
(18:51):
than happy to pocket some of that. You know, that's
completely possible.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Of the one year, Rogertzinsky quietly left his position as
the head of the MAI, having caused so much chaos.
A new head was brought in, and eventually so was
anatotally Garishchenko. He took on a new role as an
advisor to the new head, was that the MAI almost
every day. He also helped students, help professors, worked on
(19:23):
various research projects. He was back to doing what he loved.
That is, until he fell down the stairs to his death.
So let's address the elephant in the room. Did someone
push Garishchenko down the stairs? If they did, why, Perhaps
(19:44):
it has some connection to Russia's continued war on Ukraine.
After a year and a half of brutal Massacre's regular
bombings on civilians and countless lives destroyed, Putin's full scale
invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for the reputation
of Russia's military. They're nowhere near Kiev. They've lost almost
(20:08):
fifty thousand soldiers, had two thousand tanks destroyed. More than
one hundred and forty aircraft have been shot out of
the sky by the Ukrainians. Before the invasion, Russia's military
were considered the second best in the world. Not so
much now. Putin must be absolutely livid. Now we know
(20:31):
that the Moscow Aviation Institute plays a huge role in
Russia's military efficiency. Remember, Gerrishchenko was given that fancy medal
that covers significant contributions to the defense of Russia. Is
it possible that Gerrishchenko was blamed for some of Russia's
military dysfunction? There were already indications he was no longer
(20:53):
in the Kremlin's good books, with the Roger at Zinsky
madness and all. Maybe someone punished Garishchiko by pushing him
down those flights of stairs. I spoke with Aram Schabanian
(21:23):
about this. If it is a case of this guy
didn't actually fall downstairs, let's say in theory, and maybe
he did fall out of favor with the Kremlin, and
he fell so far out of favor that he then
fell down the stairs and died. What could it possibly
be that pushed him out of favor. Well, this guy
(21:45):
is at the Moscow Aviation Institute, and right now there's
a war going on. Obviously, Russia has invaded Ukraine and
he's trying to destroy the place. A lot of that
is of course involving fighter jets, Russian fighter jets. What
a role have the Russian fighter jets played in Ukraine?
From what I've seen from the when I was there
(22:06):
as well in some of the kind of research and
what I've I've been hearing from people, it seems that
there's an issue with the Russian fighter jets. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Absolutely? Yeah, you haven't seen them as heavily engaged as
you might have expected from the beginning of this war.
I mean you would have expected them to be flying
close air support missions regularly, and they really haven't done
that since the first couple of days of the war.
There's still a problem, but it's not like in say Syria,
where a Russian jet would just circle the area and
(22:37):
strike at will. Right the air space is more contested
than that, and so they can they can fight the
Ukrainians from a distance, but their fighters directly over the
target are pretty vulnerable still when all is said and done.
A large part of why the Russians didn't succeed in
taking Kiev in the early days is going to be
come down to the lack of close air support. If
(22:58):
the Russian fighters were willing to press the risks and
they were willing to go over Ukrainian airspace, they could
be a real risk or a real threat to Ukrainian drones,
not quad copters, but larger drones, the birectors and stuff
like that. The thing is, these Russian fighter pilots and
strike pilots aren't really as willing to take these risks
because they recognize that the airspace over Ukraine itself is contested,
(23:21):
so they are more willing to engage in standoff attacks.
And you see that with everything from fighter jets launching
longer range missiles to Russian attack helicopters pulling up at
the last minute near the battlefield and lobbing rockets over
the horizon rather than directly engaging a target. Pilots understand
that when they get shot down, things don't go very
well for them, and that's pretty universal in a lot
(23:44):
of wars. I mean, pilots to get lynched. They understand
the risks involved there, and so I think that's why
a lot of them are a lot more risk averse.
And I think the Kremlin will be very frustrated with
that as we go forward, because they're going to say, well,
you're not taking the same risks that the ground forces
are taking.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Right, That's not the institute's fault, right. The institute is
the people that build them and make them right, So
why would the Kremlin then see them as responsible for that?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Putin, he could say, you didn't design aircraft or components
or avionics or whatever it may be that could counter
the Ukrainians adequately or quickly enough. You lost the war
for us. Look how quickly the Americans adapted. Look how
quickly everybody else can adapt?
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Right?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
And I think that part of this problem is because
the Russian Air Force as an independent entity is still
very new. Under the Soviet Union, Russian air power was
subservient to the army. There wasn't an independent air force,
and so that means that everything the air wing of
the army did was with the army in mind. So
(24:43):
they had a lot more close air support aircraft, a
lot of the Su twenty five's and stuff. They didn't
spend as much on the quote unquote sexy fighters like
the US did, and the long range bombers, and so
that's why the US had an advantage in airpower for
the longest time. The Russians have only recently started to
catch up with spending a lot more money on advanced
fighters and things like that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So maybe Putin or someone else high up in the
Kremlin had Garishchenko pushed down some stairs as punishment and
a message to fix things right in the war an assassination,
but make it look like an accident. Maybe there's another
angle to this case, though, that we yet to look into,
(25:25):
something that makes it even more relevant to sad Oligach.
Money Now, Whilst the average Russian academic is unlikely to
make big money in Russia, it's different for people like Garishchenko,
people who become the head of an institute as major
as the Mai. SERGEI went through Russian income documents and
(25:46):
found that Garishchenko was quite the highest flyer.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I listened to the salaries for these directors. It starts
off pretty low, and some of the smaller regions, kind
of core regions with around five hundred thousand rubles, which
I think translates to about twenty thousand dollars. And I
saw one with a director in Saint Petersburg. It sounds
like this guy is from like Putin circle. He made
(26:15):
two hundred and forty six million rubles, which seemed a
lot to me. And I think that translates to a
couple million dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, a year to be the head of a scientific institute. Yeah,
that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And we know that Gerrishchenko was
an ally of Putin, so I think, you know, perhaps
he was on the same thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Actually, I was trying to find anything on him and Rojasinski,
and I found some documents. It's titled like anti corruption
documents or something. Essentially when you work for a government institute.
I know this because this is something they do in Ukraine,
but essentially you kind of declare like these are the
homes I own, these are the assets, this is the
(26:55):
money I have. And I found some on both Rajasinski
and get a Shinko from around this. Well, first I
looked at it was Jasinski and he only has one salary,
the declaration or whatever.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
The following is a small look into the life of
the form ahead of the Mai or Jetzinski. No, the
salary he pulled in in one year versus the assets
he declared on the phone.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Seventy thousand USD, So that would be from the first
year he worked there, right, or the only year he
worked there. Then he has a porschekm and he has
two apartments. Then his wife, her declaration has twelve million rubles,
which again is two hundred thousand USD. And I was like, wow, okay,
this guy is kind of seeing to be set up,
like I don't know, like basically a Hollywood villain, you know,
(27:41):
came in removed this passionate professor who's such a good guy.
Everybody loves him, everybody's gussing about him. He's driving this
Porschekyen and I'm like, I'm starting to feel bad for
he had a shinko. And then I look at his assets.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Now this the following is a look into anatotly garish Chenko's,
or at least what he himself declared on the anti
corruption forms that surge you uncovered.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
This guy has three apartments, a datcha so summer home.
He has three garages, which I assume are connected to
the apartment slash homes. He has another home, two cars,
and this is the stuff that he declared.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
His salary is pretty similar the salary is pretty normal.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
But then he has all these assets. Well, how did
the garish chenco afford all this fancy stuff? Was it
gifts or did he have some kind of secondary income.
He didn't declare one, but he did declare his garages,
his three apartments, his cars, and his holiday homes.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
When you declare these things, you're kind of saying like,
this is what I'm willing to show you. If you
want to say I have something else, like go ahead
and improve it. You know, this is not like you're
obligated to reveal everything. This is the stuff he was
comfortable saying.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
But wait, there's more. The head academic of the MAI
not only had all of these garages, the houses, and
the kas, he also owned land also. He has two
land plots.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
One is six hundred and sixty five square kilometers, one
is three thousand square kilometers.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
How does the head of a research university on seventy
grand a year end up with a load of land,
three apartments, a holiday home, their own home, two cars,
and two garages. Maybe Garishchenko was getting more than medals
from the Kremlin. Perhaps in this opaque world of Russian
(29:39):
government funded research facilities that have direct ramifications to the
ongoing shambles that is Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Getting assassinated
is a possible workplace hazard. It's either that or Garishenko
simply just fell down the stairs and it was an accident.
(29:59):
Everything else is a coincidence. The chilling thing is I
think in this case, both results are possible. Sad Oligarch
(30:24):
is a H eleven production for Cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced,
researched and edited by me Jake Hanrahan and Sergey Slipchenkok
co produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music by Sam Black, artwork
by Adam mcdoyle, sound mix by Splicing Block. Go to
(30:46):
Jakeanrahan dot com for more information
Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists,
was poisoned, murdered his whole family. Last year, more than
a dozen Russian oligarchs died in the space of nine months.
(00:21):
Many of the deaths are suspicious with links to the Kremlin.
This is sad Oligach, an investigation into these recently dead
Russian billionaires. It's created by me jake Hanrahan and my
colleague Sergey Slipchenko. Sad Oligarch is a h eleven production
for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio. In this episode, we're going
(00:50):
to be looking into someone with quite a different profile.
This case is not about a rich Russian businessman, but
a rich Russian scientist. He was a friend of the
Kremlin and he died in mysterious circumstances. The Russian police
quickly swept the case under the rug, categorizing it as
an accident, but we think there's more to it. On
(01:14):
September twenty one, twenty twenty two, anatotally Garishchenko seventy three,
was visiting the Moscow Aviation Institute the Mai. He had
a new role at the institute as an advisor to
the current director, after some serious drama had unfolded previously.
Until twenty fifteen, Garishchenko was the head of the institute,
(01:36):
making him an official point of contact for the Kremlin.
By all accounts, he was even an ally of Putin.
As Garishchenko made his way down some steps at the institute,
he apparently tripped and fell. He tumbled hard down several
flights of stairs. By the time he got to the bottom,
(01:58):
he was dead. According to an unnamed source in the
Kremlin linked newspaper Zvestia, Garishchenko died there and then on
the grounds of the institute. There are quote Erishchenko fell
from a great height, flying down several flights of stairs.
Medicks arrived at the scene of the incident and pronounced
(02:19):
him dead ends quote. It must have been a heavy fall.
Garishchenko was fairly old, sure, but he was neither unfit
nor unwell. In fact, in photos he looks really good
for his age. Presumably he'd bashed his head in on
the steps on the way down, or perhaps broken his neck.
(02:41):
We don't know for sure, as no official autopsy was
ever released to the public. Moscow Aviation Institute released a
statement at the time of Garishchenko's death, saying, quote the
death was the result of an accident. His untimely demise
was a colossal loss for the m AI and the
scientific and pedagogical community end quote. Garishchenko had worked in
(03:07):
aviation since nineteen seventy seven. ATMAI, he was a lead engineer,
chief mechanic and vice director for the development of the
institute's complex and social issues. From two thousand and seven
to twenty fifteen, he was the head director of the MAAI.
He published more than one hundred scientific papers and articles.
(03:30):
So what does the death of a scientist have to
do with sad oligach and a totally Garishchenko wasn't just
any scientist, and the Moscow Aviation Institute isn't just any
research center. Both are heavily linked to the Kremlin.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Moscow Aviation Institute was established in nineteen thirty so it
goes back to Soviet days.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's Arab Shabanian, a researcher with a special focus on aviation,
specifically in the context of global unrest and authoritarian countries.
I spoke to him to get an idea of the
cooperation between the MAI and the Russian government.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The name makes it sound like it's an independent university
of some kind, but it's really not. It's they work
for the Russian government and they have since the days
of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union broke up,
the Russian government became almost the sole contractor with this,
with this university, and so a lot of the greats
in Russian and Soviet history went through this this institute.
(04:35):
Your Sukhoy's, your mccoyen's, your Illusians, Tupelevs, you know, all
these famous aircraft names are folks who went through this institute,
including the man who invented the AK forty seven and
mister Koalashtikov, he is also an alumni of the institute.
So that's the background there is that it's been very
tight in with the government, at least as far as
(04:56):
arms production and manufacturing goes.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So when it says aviation, it's a lot more than that.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I mean, it's aviation based, but it's more electrotechnical. They
have several different schools. They have like aeronautical engineering, but
they also have remote controls for flying vehicles, so you
can imagine how that would be useful for more than
just aircraft. They have like robotics and intelligence systems, astronomics,
(05:22):
business engineering, things like that, social engineering, anything that can
be related to aeronautics in some way happens at this institute.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
It's more than just learning how to fly right. And
what kind of connection would this aviation institute have with
let's say the military in Russia.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Think of it like any of the defense contractors in
the US, but kind of on steroids, right, Like, at
least in the US, your lockheeds and your raytheons are
probably going to supply some of America's allies from time
to time. Whereas the design bureaus that are supported by
this institute pretty much exclusively sell to the Russian government,
(06:07):
who then it sells to outside customers. So their sole customer,
their prime customer and prime interest is the Russian government.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So this guy, Gusha Chenklo, he was the head for
many many years of the institute. Then there was some
kind of drama and then someone else was the head.
But anyway, this guy was elected twice in a row.
He made a lot of money through that. What kind
of connection would the head of an institute like this
(06:38):
have with the Kremlin. How direct would it be, do
you think?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I mean, I think it would be very direct. I
mean the same in Russia happens in other countries right
where this guy's name may be on the designs, but
we both know one dude didn't design a fighter jet.
There was a whole team behind him. But he's the
guy who's gotten favor with the government. He's the government's
favorite guy in this case. So to see him from
voted to the head of the institute means that he's
(07:02):
at least friendly with the Kremlin. They wouldn't promote somebody
to the head of this institute who was not friendly
or was an unknown entity. They wouldn't want that. And
I think that seeing the previous leader fall kind of
proves that if you're not entirely subservient to what the
Kremlin wants, you might have an accident. I'm not saying
that's what happened, but that's what I would suspect.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So, as you can see, this aviation scientist suddenly becomes
a lot more relevant to this series. So who actually
was anatotally Garishchenko? Anatotally Garishchenko born in nineteen forty nine,
worked at the Moscow Aviation Institute for most of his career.
(07:45):
He first got a job there in nineteen ninety seven,
working his way up with varying progressive roles in engineering
at the MAI. By all accounts, Garishchenko was very popular
at his workplace. He was good at what he did well,
liked and managed the institute well when he was first
elected as the rector or, the head of the Moscow
(08:07):
Aviation Institute in two thousand and seven. He was then
elected a second time as the rector in twenty twelve.
As Aramunmi discussed, the MAI works hand in hand with
the Kremlin, so much so that Grishchenko was given several
prestigious awards by the Russian government. Notably, he was awarded
(08:29):
the Medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland.
This medal is a big deal for Russian citizens in
favor of Putin's government. The medal is split into different
categories for civilians and military, from first class to fourth class.
It's awarded to Russians for quote outstanding contributions to the
(08:52):
state associated with the development of Russian statehood, advances in labor, peace,
friendship and cooperation between nations, or for significant contributions to
the defense of the fatherland. Ends quote. My guess is
seen as Garishchenko worked in aviation, he was awarded this medal.
(09:12):
For the latter half of that statement, generally, if you're
given this medal, it means Putin likes you. Aram explains.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
It's not like the Medal of Honor in the US,
which is awarded for military prowess and has to be
passed by Congress. This is something that can be given
to people by the Kremlin who the Kremlin likes. It's
like how Trump gave what's his name that radio show
hosts the Presidential Medal of Freedom, right where it's like
(09:42):
it kind of loses meaning after a while because it's
just like, oh, look, all your friends happen to have
this medal. Isn't that weird? Huh?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
That's interesting. But I would then say, then that probably
shows that he was quite in favor in Putin's favorite.
It's not just reports, oh he was an ally. That
suggests to me like, yeah, that's the real deal. Definitely
friends with this guy, at least on a level of
where he's used for them kind of friends, right.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Exactly, they were friends. Emphasis on were But yeah, I
mean it's kind of like, you know, if I've got
the power to hand up medals on my homies, they're
going to be decked out in metals. That's the way
it's going to go.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So it's clear Garishchenko was in good standing with the Kremlin.
He got middles Awards and was the head of the
Moscow Aviation Institute, which helped advance technology that assists the
Kremlin's war efforts all across the world. Garrischenko was Putin's
guy until he wasn't. Twenty fifteen, storm broke out at
(10:54):
the m AI serious upheaval assist the universe and research institute.
The similarly named Moscow Institute of Technological Aviation was shut
down as it was considered an economic drain. The head
of this now closed down university, Alexander Rogertsinski, was sent
(11:16):
to the MAI to replace Garrishchenko with no election. No
one voted him in as they had with Garishchenko twice.
No one even knew this guy was coming to take over.
This caused a lot of trouble at the MAI. Surgery
explained the.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Moscow Aviation Institute to the one that remained while the
other one got shut down. Is actually apparently like a
really really big deal. It's kind of like the only
institute that focuses on like aerospace and aviation for Russia,
and they basically train everybody in the They call it
like life cycle of aviation, so like from engineers to
(11:56):
maintenance to researchers, and from what understood, it's the biggest
and essentially the only place that does that in Russia.
So Anatoly Greshenko, you know, the one that passed away.
He got elected as a director in twentousand and seven,
reelected twenty twelve, and his contract was actually expiring in
(12:17):
twenty fifteen. From one understand it seemed like he was
going to get reelected again, but before that happened, a
sister institute was kind of being run into the ground
by Rojasinsky. So the guy that eventually replaced him, he's
definitely he definitely like gets the blame for it.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I found like a video on some kind.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Of Russian talk show where he's being questioned like why
is the university failing to produce graduates? Why is the
university like ranking poorly things like that, and they're kind
of they're basically pushing the blame onto him as like
the director for failing to have results. And that's in
twenty fourteen. So the Russian Department of Education decided that
(12:57):
it's losing money, it's not producing results.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
They shut it down.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
But obviously, you know, all these the buildings, intact, a
lot of professors are still there. They essentially merged it
with the Moscow Aviation Institute, and MAI basically absorbed it
and over like oversaw all the projects, all the studies
that were going at the other institute. And for whatever reason,
(13:21):
the Education department decided to install Razjatsinski without being elected,
without really consulting with anyone. For whatever reason, they decided that, like,
this guy's going to be in charge.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
So then they bring in a new guy without any election.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, they just basically said this guy is going to
be in charge.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Now.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
This is the guy that ran the sister university into
the ground, but for some reason, the Russian government decided
to put him in charge in place of Garishchenko, who
kept the MAI thriving. The sister university was doing so
badly it had to be closed merged with the one
that was doing well. So then the head of the
failing Uni is then put in charge of the thriving one.
(14:02):
It makes no sense. And then when roger Zinsky was
put in charge, he wanted Gerrishenko out immediately, even though
the guy didn't have long left on his contract.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Initially he was supposed to wait for Geishenko to well,
his contract was like coming up in I think it
was the summer twenty fifteen, and so was from that
point where like all this was happening. It says it
said that there was two months left right for Geishchenko
to leave. Anyways, So there's Jasinski receiving a lot of
(14:34):
backlash from students, from professors. He almost got like, I
don't know, mad or upset about it, and he removed
Getashchenko almost overnight.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Not only was Gerrishchenko removed from his position prematurely by
an inept guy who the government route forced into the MAI,
but he was completely wiped out from the organization. His
name was removed from everywhere immediately. This after four twenty
years of loyal service.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
He was removed from the website, completely gone. Like there's
other directors, like previous directors. So these guys were used
to work here, you know, Geroshinko was completely like deleted
off the website, replaced by Rajasinski. His office was cleared out,
name played removed to replaced toward the Rajasinski's. It was
like overnight the news came out and then the next
(15:23):
day he was gone, no kind of warning he was gone.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
This reminds me slightly of what happened to Alexander to Yolokov,
the Gazprom executive from episode two. He had all his
images wiped from the Gazprom records within twenty four hours
of being found dead at his home. He worked there
in prestigious positions for more than twenty years. Similarly, Garishenko's
(15:51):
profile was removed overnight from the MAI after decades of
service to the organization. His though, was before he even died.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And again, this is two months before the contract was
supposed to end anyway, so they could have just waited
for him to run up his contract and then quietly
like replace him.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Shortly after this happened, Rajetsinski went on a scorched earth
campaign as the newly installed head of the Moscow Aviation Institute.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Immediately, Rojasinski started big and dictator basically any professor who
continued to protest the change or backing get a shink
In any way kind of like defending him, saying like
he should have stayed got fired. A lot of people
lost funding for their programs, their studies, whatever they were
working on. From what I can understand as punishment for
(16:40):
supporting Getashinko. They either lost funding or their projects were
fully like shut down.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So after running the MAI for years with great popularity
and efficiency, Garishchenko was removed and this lunatic was installed
without anyone voting him in. This guy then recked apply,
acting like a dictator and ruining people's research if they
dared to speak out against him. Now, Surgery and Me,
(17:08):
Doug and Doug into why this guy Rojetzinsky was installed,
But none of it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I can't explain it. The only I can think of
is he had better connections with the Education Department.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
What did become apparent, though, is that not only was
Rojetzinsky a hot head, he was a total fraud throughout
this whole thing.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
It was kind of like a couple of months where
students were protesting, professors were speaking out about it. This
online group found that his PhD thesis, the certation, whatever,
the thing that got him to PhD was like eighty
percent plagiarized.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Almost his entire thesis was stolen, and yet there he
was the new head of Russia's most prestigious aviation institute.
The only explanation I can think of is that someone
up in the Kremlin wanted him there for reasons we
don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
For a year Roja since key kind of one article
says rain terror on academia, and they say he kind
of continued to fuck things up for the institute. From
what I can understand, people are basically saying he's like
a fraud. And to begin with, I think his like
study area or whatever. It's like economics, so not exactly
related to aerospace and aviation. It's kind of weird. And
(18:21):
also like this is a you know, it's an academic position,
so you'd kind of think, like, okay, like why is
there so much drum about this?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Who cares for this?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Especially if you're not passionate about it, but especially with
the MAI. It gets a load of funding from the state.
They're getting probably billions of rubles a year, and the
director gets to decide who gets what, Like I said,
to punish people, he froze at he's froze like funding.
You know, he can do that, he can redirect it,
he can send it elsewhere, and I'm sure he's more
(18:51):
than happy to pocket some of that. You know, that's
completely possible.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Of the one year, Rogertzinsky quietly left his position as
the head of the MAI, having caused so much chaos.
A new head was brought in, and eventually so was
anatotally Garishchenko. He took on a new role as an
advisor to the new head, was that the MAI almost
every day. He also helped students, help professors, worked on
(19:23):
various research projects. He was back to doing what he loved.
That is, until he fell down the stairs to his death.
So let's address the elephant in the room. Did someone
push Garishchenko down the stairs? If they did, why, Perhaps
(19:44):
it has some connection to Russia's continued war on Ukraine.
After a year and a half of brutal Massacre's regular
bombings on civilians and countless lives destroyed, Putin's full scale
invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for the reputation
of Russia's military. They're nowhere near Kiev. They've lost almost
(20:08):
fifty thousand soldiers, had two thousand tanks destroyed. More than
one hundred and forty aircraft have been shot out of
the sky by the Ukrainians. Before the invasion, Russia's military
were considered the second best in the world. Not so
much now. Putin must be absolutely livid. Now we know
(20:31):
that the Moscow Aviation Institute plays a huge role in
Russia's military efficiency. Remember, Gerrishchenko was given that fancy medal
that covers significant contributions to the defense of Russia. Is
it possible that Gerrishchenko was blamed for some of Russia's
military dysfunction? There were already indications he was no longer
(20:53):
in the Kremlin's good books, with the Roger at Zinsky
madness and all. Maybe someone punished Garishchiko by pushing him
down those flights of stairs. I spoke with Aram Schabanian
(21:23):
about this. If it is a case of this guy
didn't actually fall downstairs, let's say in theory, and maybe
he did fall out of favor with the Kremlin, and
he fell so far out of favor that he then
fell down the stairs and died. What could it possibly
be that pushed him out of favor. Well, this guy
(21:45):
is at the Moscow Aviation Institute, and right now there's
a war going on. Obviously, Russia has invaded Ukraine and
he's trying to destroy the place. A lot of that
is of course involving fighter jets, Russian fighter jets. What
a role have the Russian fighter jets played in Ukraine?
From what I've seen from the when I was there
(22:06):
as well in some of the kind of research and
what I've I've been hearing from people, it seems that
there's an issue with the Russian fighter jets. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Absolutely? Yeah, you haven't seen them as heavily engaged as
you might have expected from the beginning of this war.
I mean you would have expected them to be flying
close air support missions regularly, and they really haven't done
that since the first couple of days of the war.
There's still a problem, but it's not like in say Syria,
where a Russian jet would just circle the area and
(22:37):
strike at will. Right the air space is more contested
than that, and so they can they can fight the
Ukrainians from a distance, but their fighters directly over the
target are pretty vulnerable still when all is said and done.
A large part of why the Russians didn't succeed in
taking Kiev in the early days is going to be
come down to the lack of close air support. If
(22:58):
the Russian fighters were willing to press the risks and
they were willing to go over Ukrainian airspace, they could
be a real risk or a real threat to Ukrainian drones,
not quad copters, but larger drones, the birectors and stuff
like that. The thing is, these Russian fighter pilots and
strike pilots aren't really as willing to take these risks
because they recognize that the airspace over Ukraine itself is contested,
(23:21):
so they are more willing to engage in standoff attacks.
And you see that with everything from fighter jets launching
longer range missiles to Russian attack helicopters pulling up at
the last minute near the battlefield and lobbing rockets over
the horizon rather than directly engaging a target. Pilots understand
that when they get shot down, things don't go very
well for them, and that's pretty universal in a lot
(23:44):
of wars. I mean, pilots to get lynched. They understand
the risks involved there, and so I think that's why
a lot of them are a lot more risk averse.
And I think the Kremlin will be very frustrated with
that as we go forward, because they're going to say, well,
you're not taking the same risks that the ground forces
are taking.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Right, That's not the institute's fault, right. The institute is
the people that build them and make them right, So
why would the Kremlin then see them as responsible for that?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Putin, he could say, you didn't design aircraft or components
or avionics or whatever it may be that could counter
the Ukrainians adequately or quickly enough. You lost the war
for us. Look how quickly the Americans adapted. Look how
quickly everybody else can adapt?
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Right?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
And I think that part of this problem is because
the Russian Air Force as an independent entity is still
very new. Under the Soviet Union, Russian air power was
subservient to the army. There wasn't an independent air force,
and so that means that everything the air wing of
the army did was with the army in mind. So
(24:43):
they had a lot more close air support aircraft, a
lot of the Su twenty five's and stuff. They didn't
spend as much on the quote unquote sexy fighters like
the US did, and the long range bombers, and so
that's why the US had an advantage in airpower for
the longest time. The Russians have only recently started to
catch up with spending a lot more money on advanced
fighters and things like that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So maybe Putin or someone else high up in the
Kremlin had Garishchenko pushed down some stairs as punishment and
a message to fix things right in the war an assassination,
but make it look like an accident. Maybe there's another
angle to this case, though, that we yet to look into,
(25:25):
something that makes it even more relevant to sad Oligach.
Money Now, Whilst the average Russian academic is unlikely to
make big money in Russia, it's different for people like Garishchenko,
people who become the head of an institute as major
as the Mai. SERGEI went through Russian income documents and
(25:46):
found that Garishchenko was quite the highest flyer.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I listened to the salaries for these directors. It starts
off pretty low, and some of the smaller regions, kind
of core regions with around five hundred thousand rubles, which
I think translates to about twenty thousand dollars. And I
saw one with a director in Saint Petersburg. It sounds
like this guy is from like Putin circle. He made
(26:15):
two hundred and forty six million rubles, which seemed a
lot to me. And I think that translates to a
couple million dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, a year to be the head of a scientific institute. Yeah,
that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And we know that Gerrishchenko was
an ally of Putin, so I think, you know, perhaps
he was on the same thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Actually, I was trying to find anything on him and Rojasinski,
and I found some documents. It's titled like anti corruption
documents or something. Essentially when you work for a government institute.
I know this because this is something they do in Ukraine,
but essentially you kind of declare like these are the
homes I own, these are the assets, this is the
(26:55):
money I have. And I found some on both Rajasinski
and get a Shinko from around this. Well, first I
looked at it was Jasinski and he only has one salary,
the declaration or whatever.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
The following is a small look into the life of
the form ahead of the Mai or Jetzinski. No, the
salary he pulled in in one year versus the assets
he declared on the phone.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Seventy thousand USD, So that would be from the first
year he worked there, right, or the only year he
worked there. Then he has a porschekm and he has
two apartments. Then his wife, her declaration has twelve million rubles,
which again is two hundred thousand USD. And I was like, wow, okay,
this guy is kind of seeing to be set up,
like I don't know, like basically a Hollywood villain, you know,
(27:41):
came in removed this passionate professor who's such a good guy.
Everybody loves him, everybody's gussing about him. He's driving this
Porschekyen and I'm like, I'm starting to feel bad for
he had a shinko. And then I look at his assets.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Now this the following is a look into anatotly garish Chenko's,
or at least what he himself declared on the anti
corruption forms that surge you uncovered.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
This guy has three apartments, a datcha so summer home.
He has three garages, which I assume are connected to
the apartment slash homes. He has another home, two cars,
and this is the stuff that he declared.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
His salary is pretty similar the salary is pretty normal.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
But then he has all these assets. Well, how did
the garish chenco afford all this fancy stuff? Was it
gifts or did he have some kind of secondary income.
He didn't declare one, but he did declare his garages,
his three apartments, his cars, and his holiday homes.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
When you declare these things, you're kind of saying like,
this is what I'm willing to show you. If you
want to say I have something else, like go ahead
and improve it. You know, this is not like you're
obligated to reveal everything. This is the stuff he was
comfortable saying.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
But wait, there's more. The head academic of the MAI
not only had all of these garages, the houses, and
the kas, he also owned land also. He has two
land plots.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
One is six hundred and sixty five square kilometers, one
is three thousand square kilometers.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
How does the head of a research university on seventy
grand a year end up with a load of land,
three apartments, a holiday home, their own home, two cars,
and two garages. Maybe Garishchenko was getting more than medals
from the Kremlin. Perhaps in this opaque world of Russian
(29:39):
government funded research facilities that have direct ramifications to the
ongoing shambles that is Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Getting assassinated
is a possible workplace hazard. It's either that or Garishenko
simply just fell down the stairs and it was an accident.
(29:59):
Everything else is a coincidence. The chilling thing is I
think in this case, both results are possible. Sad Oligarch
(30:24):
is a H eleven production for Cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced,
researched and edited by me Jake Hanrahan and Sergey Slipchenkok
co produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music by Sam Black, artwork
by Adam mcdoyle, sound mix by Splicing Block. Go to
(30:46):
Jakeanrahan dot com for more information
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.
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