Russian journalist who reported about Putin's alleged affair with gymnast dies in Latvia

The Russian journalist known as the "personal enemy" of Vladimir Putin has died after eating poisonous mushrooms. Grigory Nekhoroshev, who lived in Latvia, was the one who exposed Putin's alleged relationship with Olympic gymnastics champion Alina Kabaeva. He died on June 19 in Riga, Latvia’s capital. Latvian news portal Delfi reported that he had been living in Riga for 11 years as a political refugee. According to his friends, he died from the false honey mushrooms he found in his backyard. The 69-year-old was the editor-in-chief of a Russian newspaper which reported on Putin's supposed relationship in 2008.

He was a respected figure in the Russian-speaking intellectual circles. Bozhena Rynska, a Russian journalist based in Latvia, called his loss "incomprehensible". Igors Vatoļins, another journo who saw Nekhoroshev shortly before he died, said the editor was "a not-old, not-ill person, full of ideas and plans". According to his friends, Nekhoroshev feared a possible attack by Putin's assassins in Latvia. Vatoļins said, “Nekhoroshev was the first to reveal the name of Putin’s common-law wife, rhythmic gymnastics champion Alina Kabaeva," adding Putin “did not forgive him for that.”

Reports of Putin's relationship with Kabaeva

Kabaeva was 30 years younger than Putin. According to Nekhoroshev's report of 1998, Putin planned to divorce his wife, Lyudmila, and marry Kabaeva. After the story came out, the newspaper, Moskovsky Korrespondent, was forced to shut down. Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB spy turned banker and entrepreneur, ran the newspaper. Security officers interrogated Nekhoroshev and threatened him. Other media outlets also started publishing the story of Putin's relationship with Kabaeva, while claiming that they have at least two children together - Ivan, 11, and Vladimir, seven. Putin has repeatedly denied reports about his affair with Kabaeva.

Putin's enemies who died in mysterious circumstances

While there is no evidence of foul play in Nekhoroshev's death, several of Putin's adversaries have died in suspicious circumstances. In 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative reporter, was shot dead in her Moscow apartment. An ex-FSB operative, Alexander Litvinenko, died from radioactive polonium-210 poisoning in London. In 2013, oligarch Boris Berezovsky was found hanged in Britain. Boris Nemtsov, a political adversary of Putin, was shot near the Kremlin in 2015. The most well-known case is of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private army, who was killed in a plane crash in 2023. Just last week, artist Semyon Skrepetsky was shot dead in Poland for portraying Putin as a bloodthirsty dictator.