Russian exec who founded TV channel that once bashed Putin is found dead in Spain, reports say
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The media executive who co-founded an independent Russian TV channel once known for blasting President Vladimir Putin was found dead in Spain on Monday, reports say.
It was not immediately clear where 64-year-old Igor Malashenko’s body was discovered, but Russia media reported that he may have committed suicide, according to The Moscow Times.
Malashenko co-founded and served as the president of NTV, a channel that routinely criticized current Russian President Vladimir Putin during his first term in office, Reuters reports. It changed its tune after the Russian government purchased it in 2000.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Malashenko got into politics by joining Boris Yeltsin’s campaign team to help steer him to a presidential victory in 1996, The Moscow Times added.
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Malashenko most recently served as the campaign manager for presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak last year. Sobchak, though, received only 1,238,031 votes compared to current Putin’s 56,430,712.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Igor Malashenko has killed himself. I can’t pull myself together,” Sobchak said Monday on a messaging app, The Moscow Times reported, citing the Vedomosti business daily newspaper. “I’m grateful to him for our joint work on the presidential campaign. I saw him as a very proper and creative person. I’m proud he headed my campaign.”