Deputy editor of Putin’s favourite newspaper Anna Tsareva found dead aged 35 just a year after her boss’s mystery death
THE deputy editor-in-chief of Vladimir Putin’s favourite newspaper has been found dead in Moscow marking the latest in a series of mysterious deaths in Russia.
The body of Anna Tsareva, 35, was discovered at her home in the capital's Bolshoy Tishinsky Lane - nearly a year after the death of her boss Vladimir Sungorkin, 68.
Police have opened an investigation into the death of Tsareva, the deputy editor of pro-Putin Komsomolskaya Pravda [KP], reported Baza online news outlet.
Initial reports say there was no indication of a break-in to her apartment.
“No signs of violent death were found,” said the report.
It is known she had developed an unspecified acute respiratory viral infection, and had suffered a high fever for several days.
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However, Shot media reported today that it is suspected she died of “acute heart failure”.
Her body was found by her father who became worried that she had not been in touch since Sunday.
Tsareva was reported to be in charge of content on Komsomolskaya Pravda’s website, including stories about Putin’s war against Ukraine.
It is the biggest news website in Russia with 83.9 million readers in October 2023.
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She had been deputy editor-in-chief for six years.
Her boss Vladimir Sungorkin, 68, editor-in-chief and director general of Komsomolskaya Pravda, died of a “heart attack” during a business trip after showing signs of suffocation in September 2022.
His death has been seen as suspicious.
He is often included among a list of dozens of untimely or mysterious deaths since the start of Putin’s war.
Sungorkin fell unconscious on a tour of the Russian Far East minutes after suggesting his group “find a beautiful place somewhere… for lunch.”
Colleague Leonid Zakharov said: “Three minutes later, Vladimir began to suffocate. We took him out for fresh air, he was already unconscious… Nothing helped.
"The doctor who did the initial examination said that apparently, it was a stroke. But this is the initial conclusion.”
Sungorkin has been sanctioned by the West over the war.
Sungorkin had worked as pro-Kremlin paper KP's editor-in-chief and director-general since 1997 after starting there as a reporter in 1976.
He was branded by the European Commission as "one of the main actors in foreign information manipulation and interference activities or propagandists who often speaks out on Ukraine, creating misinformation and manipulating facts."
He was accused of “disseminating and legitimising aggressive anti-Ukraine and anti-Western propaganda of the Putin regime under direct Kremlin authority in one of Russia's most popular media outlets.”
The commission stated: "The newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda has been described also by President Vladimir Putin as his favourite newspaper.”
The editor “is therefore responsible for supporting actions and policies which undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”.
KP was the largest newspaper in the USSR and - after the fall of the Soviet Union - Russia.
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Tsareva previously worked as deputy editor at then staunchly independent Echo Moscow radio station under highly-respected editor-in-chief Alexey Venediktov.
She also had a stint at the state news agency TASS.
