In 1998, Russian journalist Anatoly Levin-Utkin was brutally a | Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

In 1998, Russian journalist Anatoly Levin-Utkin was brutally attacked and died four days later in the hospital from his injuries.

The crime remains unsolved nearly a quarter of a century later.
Just 8 days earlier, Levin-Utkin's newspaper published one of the last articles he was involved in: a profile digging into Vladimir Putin’s past titled Lieutenant Colonel Putin Illegally Heads Up FSB.

The editor in chief of the newspaper told @currenttime that Putin’s associate inquired about the newspaper’s finances shortly thereafter. “The first thing he said was: ‘Why’d you publish such a bad photograph of Putin?’”

The alleged associate, a St. Petersburg political strategist, denied having visited. “I have no idea what this is about or what publication [about Putin] you are talking about,” he said.

The editor in chief, Aleksei Domnin, also said Levin-Utkin did not write the explosive articles in the paper’s final issues before his death, though he contributed critical research and reporting.

After publication, the paper fielded calls from “not very bright people from the security services” trying to figure out where the information for the investigations came from.

This is the final instalment of a @currenttime & @radiosvoboda investigative series on the scandals swirling around Vladimir Putin and his St. Petersburg committee at the start of his political career.

https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-journalist-killing/31910359.html?nocache=1