Deputy Editor Of Putin's 'Favourite' Newspaper Found Dead In Mysterious Circumstances

The 35-year-old deputy editor-in-chief of Vladimir Putin's "favourite" newspaper, was discovered dead at her Moscow residence marking the latest in a series of mysterious deaths in Russia, Metro reported. Anna Tsavera was found by her father at her home who became worried that she had not been in touch since Sunday.

Notably, her death comes just one year after the mysterious death of her former boss Vladimir Sungorkin. 

A law enforcement spokesperson told TASS: ''The body of 35-year-old Anna Tsareva was found in an apartment in a residential building. She didn't make contact for a long time, her parents became worried and came to her apartment, where they found their daughter's body. Before that, she said that she wasn't feeling well and complained of a high temperature.'' Some local reports have also suspected that she died of ''acute heart failure.''

Notably, Ms Tsavera worked for the pro-Putin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and had been in this editorial role for six years. It is the biggest news website in Russia with 83.9 million readers in October 2023. The daily tabloid newspaper was described by Mr. Putin as his ''favourite newspaper'', according to a document from the European Commission.

In 2020, Mr Putin wrote a statement congratulating the tabloid on their 95th anniversary, the Independent reported. ''The legendary Komsomolka has travelled a long creative path over these years and has written brilliant unforgettable pages in the history of the Russian media,'' he said. 

Police have now opened an investigation into the death. Preliminary reports say there was no indication of a break-in to her apartment.

Last year, Vladimir Sungorkin, who was the editor-in-chief of Pravda, died at the age of 68. Mr Sungorkin, who was a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had a stroke while on a business trip to Khabarovsk. In a statement on its Telegram account, the state media informed that Mr Sungorkin had "died suddenly" during a trip to "collect material for a book about the great pioneer of the Far East, Vladimir Arseniev". 

As per Global News, Mr Sungorkin had worked as the paper's editor-in-chief and director-general since 1997. He was one of the Russian public figures sanctioned by the European Commission in April after Mr Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.