I could not watch from the sidelines what Russia was doing to my homeland, said Igor Volobuyev, vice president of Russia's state-owned bank Gazprom, revealing he had fled Russia to fight alongside Ukrainian forces.
The story about him is brought by the Russian independent portal "Insajder" - specialized in investigative journalism, fact-checking and political analytics.
The insider adds that Volobuyev thus became at least the fourth CEO or official known to have left the country suddenly.
As this portal writes, Volobuyev said that he left Russia on March 2 and that he joined the territorial defense forces of Ukraine.
"The Russians killed many people - my father, my acquaintances and close friends. My father lived in a cold basement for a month. People I knew since childhood told me they were ashamed of me," said Volobuyev, who was born in the town of Ohtirka. in the north-east of Ukraine.
The 33-year-old knows he was fired from his bank after he left Russia, ending a XNUMX-year career in companies linked to state gas giant Gazprom.
"No one in Russia knows (about my departure) so far," said the former CEO.
Volobuyev said he was part of a Gazprombank public relations team tasked with undermining Ukraine's gas transportation system in the eyes of European consumers.
Volobuyev also questioned the official explanations for the back-to-back murder-suicides of former Gazprombank Vice President Vladislav Avayev in Moscow and former top manager of energy giant Novatek Sergey Protoseni in Spain.
"I don't believe they were suicides," he said, adding "that Avaje's death may have been 'staged' because he may have known too much."
Among the other top executives and officials known to have left Russia during the war, Insyader lists the first deputy chairman of the Board of Directors of Sberbank Lev Khasis, the envoy of the president Anatoly Chubais and the deputy general director of Aeroflot Andrey Panov.
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