Top Russian scientist dead in mysterious fall at Moscow Aviation Institute

News of prominent, wealthy or ostensibly powerful officials dying in falls has become a crunchy drumbeat to Russia's disastrous invasion of Ukraine. The latest defenestration is of Anatoly Gerashchenko, retired rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute.

The organization's press office released a statement describing the 73-year-old's death as "the result of an accident," adding that his untimely demise was a "a colossal loss for the MAI and the scientific and pedagogical community."