A Russian journalist living in exile has died after plunging from his seventh-floor flat in Paris.
The 38-year-old, whose identity has not been disclosed, had allegedly been the target of death threats prior to his fatal fall.
French publication Le Parisien reported that the incident occurred at a residential building on Rue de la Roseraie, in the southwest of the French capital.
Emergency responders discovered the man at the foot of the building upon arrival.
Despite being rushed to hospital, he succumbed to his injuries shortly after.
Investigators examining the apartment uncovered several items of interest at the scene.
A chair had been positioned directly in front of the window from which the man fell, and correspondence written in Russian was also discovered.
Medication was also said to have been found in a bin inside.
A flatmate who was present when the incident occurred was too distressed to provide a statement, with officers also hampered by communication difficulties due to the language barrier, Le Parisien reported.
Emergency responders discovered the man at the foot of the building upon arrival
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Authorities have yet to confirm whether this individual witnessed the journalist’s fall from the building.
While investigators are treating suicide as the most probable explanation at this stage, the Nanterre Public Prosecutor’s Office has nonetheless launched a formal inquiry.
The investigation aims to establish the precise circumstances surrounding the journalist’s death and to build a fuller picture of who the victim was.
The decision to open proceedings suggests authorities are not yet prepared to rule out other possibilities – despite the apparent evidence found at the scene.
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The journalist died after plunging from his seventh-floor flat in the Paris suburb of Meudon
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And it comes just months after four men were charged in France with plotting an assassination of Russian dissident Vladimir Osechkin, who exposed an abuse scandal in Russia’s prisons.
The journalist’s death has been billed as the latest in a disturbing pattern of unexplained deaths involving prominent Russian figures since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The trend has darkly become known as “Sudden Russian Death Syndrome”.
In October, Vyacheslav Leontyev, the 87-year-old former editor of Soviet newspaper Pravda, is said to have fallen from his fifth-floor Moscow flat following what police described as a “nervous breakdown”.
Multiple unexplained fatalities involving prominent Russian figures have occurred since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began
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September saw the deaths of two high profile Russian figures.
Boris Avakyan, a former customs official facing corruption charges, was found dead at the Armenian consulate in St Petersburg after fleeing court.
Businessman Alexey Sinitsyn was discovered decapitated beneath a bridge in Kaliningrad.
Transport Minister Roman Starovoit died from a gunshot wound in July, just hours after he was fired.
