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A journalist described as Vladimir Putin's 'personal enemy' after exposing the president's secret affair with a gymnast has died after eating poisonous mushrooms.
Grigory Nekhoroshev died aged 69 in the Latvian capital Riga, where he had lived in exile as a 'political refugee' for 11 years, reported the Delfi news outlet.
Nekhoroshev was the editor-in-chief of Russian paper Moskovsky Korrespondent that in 2008 reported that Putin planned to divorce his then wife Lyudmila to wed Olympian Alina Kabaeva.
Nekhoroshev is known to have been 'quite nervous throughout those Riga years' at a possible attack by assassins working for Vladimir Putin. He described himself as Putin's 'personal enemy'.
'Nekhoroshev was the first to reveal the name of the [Russian leader's] common-law wife, rhythmic gymnastics champion Alina Kabaeva,' said Delfi, 'Putin clearly did not forgive him for that.'
Friends say the journalist passed away at home in Riga after eating mushrooms he found in the yard of his home.
Though he was a mushroom aficionado, they turned out to be poisonous, reports say.
There has been so far no comment from the Latvian authorities on his death on Friday, but an autopsy is set to be carried out.
Grigory Nekhoroshev (pictured) died aged 69 in the Latvian capital Riga, where he had lived in exile as a 'political refugee' for 11 years
Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva pictured togetherin 2001
Russian newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent broke the story claiming Putin planned to wed Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva in April 2008
Another well-known Russian journalist based in Latvia, Bozhena Rynska, called his loss 'incomprehensible'.
Igors Vatoļins, a friend who saw Nekhoroshev shortly before he died, said the editor was 'a not-old, not-ill person, full of ideas and plans'.
When Nekhoroshev's story ran in April 2008, owner Alexander Lebedev - a former KGB spy turned banker and entrepreneur - was forced to close Moskovsky Korrespondent.
The secret services interrogated Nekhoroshev 'with threats', and he was forced to go abroad.
At the time, Putin responded to the story on Kabaeva - three decades his junior - by deploring 'those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives'.
He and Kabaeva ultimately denied the report - even though the fact of their relationship, which continues to this day, is now known to be accurate.
Putin has still not publicly acknowledged his relationship with Kabaeva, now 43, yet they are known to have two children Ivan, 11, and Vladimir, 7.
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