Former Russian official found dead in Armenian consulate one day after escaping St. Petersburg courthouse

A former Russian official who escaped from a St. Petersburg courthouse on Tuesday has been found dead inside the Armenian consulate on the city’s Vasilyevsky Island, Russian media reports.

According to the St. Petersburg outlet Fontanka, Boris Avakyan previously headed the largest customs brokerage at the Great Port of St. Petersburg. In 2010, he became deputy head of the Rosimushestvo (Russia’s Federal Property Management Agency) office in the Leningrad region, and in 2014, he was appointed deputy chief of the State Registration Service’s Land Supervision Department.

In 2016, Avakyan became one of 20 suspects in a criminal case involving more than 4.2 billion rubles (over $50 million) in unpaid customs duties. Kommersant reported that he managed to escape house arrest, first fleeing to Europe and then to Armenia. He later took part in Armenia’s 2018 revolution and went on to work in the government of the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. He was re-arrested in 2021 at a restaurant in St. Petersburg. In Armenia, according to media reports, he had also been wanted for illegally crossing the border and money laundering.

In August 2025, Russian investigators suspended the case against Avakyan after he signed a contract with the Defense Ministry to fight in the war. However, he was arrested again in September after he was discovered to have terminated his military contract.

On September 23, a St. Petersburg court was reviewing a motion to reopen the case against him. While the judges were deliberating, Avakyan managed to escape the building. According to Fontanka and other local outlets, he stepped outside for a cigarette and never returned, taking refuge inside the Armenian consulate.

Fontanka reports that Avakyan died by suicide inside the consulate. According to the Telegram channel Baza, he locked himself in a bathroom, where he took his own life.