Putin’s former classmate turned top judge Irina Podnosova dies at 71 in latest ‘mystery’ death of senior Russian figure

RUSSIA'S top judge and Putin’s former university pal has died today - just 15 months after taking the helm of the country's supreme court.

Irina Podnosova, 71, died after a battle with cancer, according to sources - but Ukrainian commentators call it the latest in a string of “mysterious” deaths among Russia's elite.

Podnosova, who was appointed as Chief Justice of Russia's Supreme Court in April 2024 under Vladimir Putin's recommendation, died in Moscow, according to Russian media.

She succeeded long-time chief Vyacheslav Lebedev, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

Ukrainian Telegram channel Pravda Gerashchenko reported: “A series of deaths of high-ranking government officials continues in Russia -  a classmate of Putin, appointed just over a year ago as the head of the supreme court, has died.”

The report added: “The exact cause of Podnosova's death is not yet known.

“Russian propaganda ‘media’ report that she died after a ‘serious illness’.”

The channel concluded:  “In Russia, people who knew too much about the secrets of the Kremlin elite continue to die.”

Podnosova had revealed in 2001 that women did not fancy gawky Putin at Leningrad State University where they both studied in the law faculty during the Soviet era.

“I well remember the last New Year [at university] - everyone dressed in masquerade costumes, and Volodya [Vladimir] came in a modest suit.

"He commented: ‘This is Stierlitz’s outfit," referencing the legendary fictional spy.

She continued: “That New Year’s Eve, everyone paired off, and only Putin left the party alone…

“He didn’t dance at discos - he just stood by the wall talking quietly, we preferred more outgoing guys.”

Podnosova's death follows Andrey Badalov's, the 62-year-old oil tycoon who fell from the 17th-floor of a luxury Moscow tower block, where he lived in a penthouse.

Suicide was recorded as the preliminary cause of death after a letter, allegedly written by Badalov, was reportedly found.

Badalov was the vice president of Transneft - Russia's state-owned oil pipeline operator and the largest company of its kind in the world.

Putin’s transport minister Roman Starovoit, 53, also died this month from gunshot wounds on the day he was fired - a death officially declared as suicide.

In 2023, leading war official Marina Yankina, 58, a finance official at Russia's Ministry of Defence, was found dead after falling 160ft from a 16th-floor window in St. Petersburg.

In 2022, Ravil Maganov, chairman of Lukoil, Russia's second-largest oil company, died after plunging from a sixth-floor window at Moscow’s elite Central Clinical Hospital - also known as the Kremlin Clinic.

On the same morning, Putin - who had earlier decorated Maganov, 67, with a top honour - swept into the hospital to pay his final respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who had died that same week.

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