Russian journalist who exposed Putin’s secret is found dead

A ‘personal enemy’ of Vladimir Putin who first revealed the dictator’s relationship with Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva has died suddenly.

A ‘personal enemy’ of Vladimir Putin who first revealed the dictator’s relationship with Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva has died suddenly.

Grigory Nekhoroshev, 69, was editor-in-chief of a Russian newspaper which reported in 2008 that the Russian ruler planned to divorce his wife, Lyudmila Putina, and wed Kabaeva instead.

Nekhoroshev died in the Latvian capital of Riga, where he had lived in exile as a political refugee for 11 years.

Friends say he passed away at home in the Baltic NATO state after eating mushrooms he found in the yard of his home.

Though he was a fan of foraging, the mushrooms he collected turned out to be poisonous.

Friends described Nekhoroshev as having been ‘quite nervous’ while in Riga about a possible attack by assassins working for Putin.

Another well-known Russian journalist based in Latvia, Bozhena Rynska, called his loss ‘incomprehensible’.

Igors Vatoļins, who saw Nekhoroshev shortly before he died, said the editor was ‘a not-old, not-ill person, full of ideas and plans’.

He added: ‘Nekhoroshev was the first to reveal the name of Putin’s common-law wife, rhythmic gymnastics champion Alina Kabaeva. Putin clearly did not forgive him for that.’

When the story ran in April 2008, owner Alexander Lebedev – a former KGB spy turned banker and entrepreneur – was forced to close the newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent.

The secret services interrogated Nekhoroshev and issued threats, and he fled abroad before later returning to his home country. 

Putin responded to the story on Kabaeva – 30 years his junior – by reprimanding ‘those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives’.