Erovinkin was a key liaison between Sechin and Putin, serving as chief of staff at Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft, the same company associated with dossier allegations about Carter Page and the lifting of sanctions by Trump. Those allegations came from a source. Erovinkin was "Sechin's closest associate", and to Putin, who was looking for leakers, he "was at least a person of interest". According to Christo Grozev, a journalist at Risk Management Lab, a think tank based in Bulgaria, the circumstances of Erovinkin's death were "mysterious". Grozev suspected Erovinkin helped Steele compile the dossier on Trump and suggests the hypothesis that the death may have been part of a cover-up by the Russian government. Experts expressed skepticism about the theory: "As a rule, people like Gen Yerovinkin don't tend to die in airport thriller murders," said Mark Galeotti, an expert on the Russian security services. References 1950s births 2016 deaths Espionage scandals and incidents KGB officers People of the Federal Security Service Rosneft Russian businesspeople in the oil industry