Mystery Shrouds the Death of Russian Journalist Maxim Borodin Who Died after Falling from Balcony

A prominent Russian journalist, Maxim Borodin, 32, died under mysterious circumstances by falling from his fifth-floor apartment. The journalist’s death is being looked at suspiciously as he covered controversial crime and political stories.

The popular journalist worked for Novy Den newspaper and covered major politics and crime stories in Russia. His fifth-floor apartment was located in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city. He covered stories on the Syrian war too.

On April 12, his body was found on the ground outside his apartment. At 5 am on April 11, he called his friend telling him that his house was surrounded by security officials who were wearing black masks and camouflage. Borodin sounded quite worried when he spoke to his friend Vyacheslav Bashkov that morning.

In a Facebook post, Bashkov wrote that his friend believed that the police were waiting for a warrant to search his home. However, he later called Bashkov and clarified that the police were performing a routine safety drill outside his home. In a twist of events, Bashkov later came across news of Borodin’s death on April 13.  He was rushed to the hospital where he was unconscious for two days, however, the journalist didn’t gain back consciousness.

Maxim Borodin’s work

Borodin covered stories on crime in Yekaterinburg’s criminal underworld. He covered about the deaths that go unreported in Kremlin’s armies who are fighting in Syria. The journalist covered stories on Russia’s religious right and published his investigations. In addition, he covered about ‘Matilda’ a blasphemous film that depicted the love affair between Tsar Nicholas II and a young ballerina and the protests surrounding the film.

Borodin was often physically attacked due to the risky nature of his work. In the month of October, he was attacked on the head by a metal pipe which the journalist linked to his work on the ‘Matilda’ protests. Two weeks back, he was in the intensive care unit with a major head injury. Recently he wrote a Pro-Putin piece, about Russian mercenaries who were losing their lives in fighting for Syrian President- Bashar-Al-Assad. The groups that the Russian mercenaries were attacking were backed by the United States.

Police said that there were no signs of forced entry into Borodin’s apartment and his apartment was locked from inside. Novy Den’s editor-in-chief Polina Rumyantseva stated that she didn’t believe that Borodin committed suicide. Though Police claim that there was was no crime involved in Borodin’s death, friends and colleagues refuse to buy the story. Prior to this story, there were other journalists who died with radioactive agents and from a car bomb in Russia. Till the truth doesn’t come to light, Borodin’s death will remain an unsolved mystery.