Russian chef and Putin critic found dead in Belgrade hotel

According to the British newspaper The Sun, known for popular Russian cooking shows, Alexei Zimin left his homeland after Russia's annexation of Crimea. He settled in London, where he opened the restaurant Zima in Soho, offering "Russian cuisine with a modern twist."

The outlet notes that his TV show was suddenly taken off the air in 2022, after 11 years of broadcasting, just four months after the invasion of Ukraine began.

Zimin was in Belgrade promoting his new book "Anglomania." Local police reported that the cause of his death is "unclear."

He is another of Putin's opponents who have suddenly died in recent years.

The chef openly criticized the Kremlin's actions, publishing anti-war posts and songs. "Stop the war. Withdraw the troops. Bring our soldiers home," he appealed. After his show was taken off the air, he stated, "Do I regret it? No, I regret that we participated in the war. I am not participating in the war, the war is participating in me."

His restaurant became— as reported—a meeting place for Russian emigrants in London, offering a space for those who were forced to leave the country and were labeled by the Kremlin as 'foreign agents.'

The Daily Mail assesses that Alexei Zimin joined the list of Russians who died shortly after escaping Putin's regime to the United Kingdom.

On the mentioned list are oligarch and political intermediary Boris Berezovsky, who was found hanged in his home in Berkshire in 2013, and his associate Nikolai Glushkov, found dead five years later.

In 2008, Putin's special services poisoned former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 in London.

The attempt to kill Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who spied for Britain, failed. A Novichok nerve agent was used against him.

Source: The Sun/Daily Mail