Putin Ally, Russian Propagandist Dead After Suddenly 'Suffocating' During Business Trip

Days after one of Putin’s allies has been confirmed dead in a mysterious accident, another close supporter of Vladimir Putin died on Wednesday due to sudden suffocation during his trip to the Far East region of Russia.

Vladimir Nikolayevich Sungorkin, the 68-year-old editor-in-chief of the Russian state newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, was found dead while on a business trip to the Russian village Roshchino on Wednesday, with his death attributed to a mysterious and sudden “suffocation” during the tour, according to the Daily Beast.

“It happened absolutely suddenly, nothing foreshadowed. We were in the village of Roshchino. 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,” colleague Leonid Zakharov said.

After Sungorkin suggested to Zakharov that they stop for lunch, Zakharov said that the editor-in-chief started suffocating right in front of him, falling unconscious during the trip.

“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 is a well-known ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda is one of the top pro-Kremlin newspapers in the country, which Putin himself praised during the paper’s 95th anniversary in 2020.

“The legendary Komsomolka has traveled a long creative path over these years and has written brilliant unforgettable pages in the history of the Russian media,” Putin said. “It is crucial that the current staff of the newspaper pass on these traditions from generation to generation and strive to retain the newspaper’s flagship position in the Russia media market.”

Sungorkin is the latest Putin ally to die suddenly and under mysterious circumstances, with Russia’s Far East and Arctic Development Corporation Aviation Director Ivan Pechorin dying on Monday due to reportedly “falling out” of a boat that he was in, Business Insider reported.

Pechorin’s boss and the company’s general director, Igor Nosov, died of a stroke in February, while Lukoil executive Ravik Maganov reportedly died last Sept. 1 after falling out of a hospital window.