A FORMER Putin ally and top aviation expert has died in Moscow, becoming the latest of the Russian president's associates to meet his end in a mysterious fashion since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), died after reportedly falling down a series of flights of stairs on Tuesday.

He was 73 years old.

A Russian channel on the messaging app Telegram, quoting the MAI, said: "This morning, 73-year-old Anatoly Gerashchenko fell from a height, flying [down] several flights of stairs."

It added: "The scientist received injuries incompatible with life. The doctors who arrived at the scene could not save the professor."

The post went on to say that Gerashchenko had more recently served as an adviser to the current MAI rector, Mikhail Poghosyan.