TV chef found dead in hotel aged 52 after criticising Vladimir Putin

A TV chef who fled to London after his opposition of Vladimir Putoin has been found dead while on a promotional tour

A Russian TV chef who criticised Vladimir Putin has been found dead in a Belgrade hotel

Alexei Zimin, 52, died suddenly on a promotional tour to the Serbian capital. Authorities have said his cause of death is currently "unclear".

Zimin fled Russia to London after his oppositions of Putin. Zimin was once a popular figure on Russian cooking shows. He also owned Zima restaurant in Soho, which he founded after he had left Russia following Putin’s invasion of Crimea.

In a statement released by Zima magazine today, a spokesperson said: “Alexei Zimin, the project's editor-in-chief and the chef of the Zima restaurant, has passed away. Alexei was not only a colleague, he was our friend, a close person with whom we were lucky to go through a lot - both good, kind and sad."

It concluded: "Thank you to everyone for the words we received today about Alexei. We are hurting together with you. The entire Zima team expresses condolences to Alexei's family and mourns together with them."

Zimin had also been editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of GQ magazine. He had steered clear of Russia since his cooking show on Russia’s NTV channel was abruptly cancelled in 2022.

Three months after Putin's invasion of Crimea, Zimin took to social media. He wrote: "Russia will be free, one way or another, or the third, more mysterious, way.”

And speaking of his exit from NTV - which is pro-Kremlin, he reacted: "11 years. For 22 television seasons, I had a programme on Saturday morning prime time on NTV. Since May it has been gone….there will be no new episodes because of the host's anti-war position.

His death comes as he was promoting his new book titled Anglomania. He is survived by his wife Tatiana 'Tanya' Dolmatovskaya, and their daughter Varvara, 17.

“Do I regret it? No, I regret that we ended up participating in the war. I do not participate in the war, the war participates in me."

Elsewhere he had hit out: "Stop the war. Withdraw troops. Return our soldiers home.”

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