The editor-in-chief of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s ‘favourite newspaper’ has died.
Vladimir Nikolayevich Sungorkin, 68, editor-in-chief of the Russian state newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, died of an alleged ‘stroke’ yesterday.
According to the tabloid, Mr Sungorkin died ‘suddenly’ while driving through the eastern village of Roshchino, Russia.
Mr Sungorkin’s colleague, Leonid Zakharov, wrote: ‘It happened absolutely suddenly, nothing foreshadowed.
‘We were driving, we were already making our way towards Khabarovsk, we planned to get there in the evening today, and from there to Moscow.
‘All was good.’
But within minutes after suggesting they find a ‘beautiful place’ for lunch, Mr Sungorkin fell unconscious as the group brought him outside for fresh air.
‘Nothing helped. The doctor who did the initial examination said that apparently, it was a stroke. But this is the initial conclusion,’ Mr Zakharov said.
Komsomolskaya Pravda said on Telegram Mr Sungorkin had been travelling to ‘collect material for a book about the great pioneer of the Far East, Vladimir Arseniev’.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Mr Sungorkin’s death is a ‘great loss’ for Russia, Newsweek reported.
‘We knew him very well,’ he told reporters yesterday, adding Mr Putin will send a personal message to Mr Sungorkin’s loved ones.
Mr Sungorkin was among hundreds of Kremlin-backers sanctioned by the European Commission in April after Russia invaded Ukraine.
EU officials described Mr Sungorkin 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’.
‘The newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda has been described also by President Vladimir Putin as his favourite newspaper.
‘Vladimir Sungorkin is therefore responsible for supporting actions and policies which undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.’
His passing follows a string of mysterious deaths this year of people who had long enjoyed being in the upper stratosphere of Mr Putin’s Russia.
The deaths have included energy, oil, finance and shipping bosses as well oligarchs and millionaires.
Many deaths of Mr Putin’s powerbrokers have been passed off as an accident or suicide by officials.
Mr Sungorkin, born June 16, 1954, joined Komsomolskaya Pravda as a rookie transport reporter after graduating from university in 1976.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, or Young Communist League Truth in English, was once the official voice of the youth wing of the ruling Communist Party in the 1920s.
Two decades later, he became editor-in-chief and director-general of one of the most pro-Putin papers in Russia.
In a statement in 2020, Mr Putin praised the historic newspaper as it celebrated the 95th anniversary of its first issue.
‘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.
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