Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Exiled Russian Editor Dies in Riga After Reported Mushroom Poisoning

Friends say he ate poisonous mushrooms he foraged and his death has renewed scrutiny because he led a 2008 exposé linking Vladimir Putin to Alina Kabaeva.

Overview

  • Grigory Nekhoroshev, 69, a former editor of Moskovsky Korrespondent, has died in Riga and friends quoted by local media say he consumed poisonous wild mushrooms he collected at home.
  • Nekhoroshev led a 2008 story that named Alina Kabaeva as Vladimir Putin’s partner and that report helped force his paper’s closure and prompted interrogation and threats against him.
  • Latvian authorities have not publicly confirmed a cause of death and an autopsy and investigation were reported as planned, with no official evidence of foul play so far.
  • Coverage of the death relies heavily on accounts from friends and the Latvian portal Delfi, and colleagues in exile have paid tribute to his work and voiced unease about his past threats.
  • The case has revived public concern about past suspicious deaths of Kremlin critics and will be watched for forensic findings and any official link to his history of reporting on Putin.