Artyom Borovik
Russian investigative journalist and media magnate killed in a plane crash at Sheremetyevo airport in 2000, three days before he was reportedly set to publish damaging materials about Vladimir Putin and the FSB apartment bombings. His death came just 17 days before Putin's presidential election victory.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Artyom Genrikhovich Borovik |
| Born | September 13, 1960, Moscow, USSR |
| Died | March 9, 2000 |
| Age at Death | 39 |
| Location of Death | Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia |
| Cause of Death | Plane crash (Yakovlev Yak-40) |
| Official Ruling | Accident — pilot error and failure to de-ice |
| Alleged Intelligence Connection | FSB suspected |
| Category | Journalist / Investigator |
Assessment: SUSPICIOUS
Artyom Borovik was one of Russia's most prominent investigative journalists, a pioneer of glasnost-era reporting, and the head of a media company whose publications were openly critical of Vladimir Putin. His last investigation focused on the 1999 Russian apartment bombings — which he and others alleged had been orchestrated by the FSB to justify the Second Chechen War. He died in a plane crash under circumstances that, while officially attributed to pilot error and icing conditions, struck many observers as suspiciously timed — coming just three days before planned publication and 17 days before Putin's election as president.
Circumstances of Death
On March 9, 2000, Borovik boarded a chartered Yakovlev Yak-40 at Sheremetyevo International Airport bound for Kyiv. The plane was chartered by Ziya Bazhayev, a prominent Russian businessman of Chechen origin who headed the Alliance Group oil company. All nine people on board — four passengers and five crew — perished when the aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff.
The official investigation by the Interstate Aviation Committee found that snow was removed from the aircraft exterior but de-icing fluid was not applied. The crew reportedly did not ask for permission to enter the taxiway, taxied at too high a speed for icy conditions, and set the flaps to 11 degrees instead of the required 20 degrees. Critics noted that such a cascading series of errors by an experienced crew was unusual and questioned whether the aircraft or instruments had been tampered with.
According to historian Yuri Felshtinsky and political scientist Vladimir Pribylovsky, Borovik's death may have been linked to his publications about Vladimir Putin just before the presidential elections scheduled for March 26. A Newsweek article at the time raised the question of sabotage, noting the suspicious timing and the pattern of Russian critics dying in aviation incidents.
Background
Borovik was the son of Genrikh Borovik, a prominent Soviet journalist and writer. Artyom was educated at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), the elite training ground for Soviet diplomats and intelligence officers.
He first rose to national fame in the late 1980s as one of the hosts of Vzglyad ("View"), a groundbreaking satirical television program that became one of the most-watched shows in the Soviet Union, drawing audiences of up to 100 million viewers weekly. The program pushed the boundaries of glasnost, openly questioning Soviet policies and institutions in ways previously unthinkable on state television.
Borovik gained international recognition for his war reporting from Afghanistan, where he embedded with Soviet forces and produced unflinching accounts of the conflict. His book The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan (1990) provided the world its first glimpse inside the Soviet military machine, capturing the soldiers' terror, helplessness, and despair at waging war in a foreign land. The book was published in English by Atlantic Monthly Press and became a landmark work of war journalism.
During the 1990s, Borovik worked for the American CBS program 60 Minutes, gaining further international credibility. He then built his own media empire, publishing the monthly investigative newspaper Top Secret, which grew into a mass-media company involved in book publishing and television production. In 1999, he launched the investigative television program Versiya ("Version") in partnership with U.S. News & World Report. Both Top Secret and Versiya tackled corruption, organized crime, and political scandals among Russia's elite, and were openly critical of Vladimir Putin.
His final investigation focused on the Russian apartment bombings of September 1999, in which explosions in Moscow, Buynaksk, and Volgodonsk killed nearly 300 people. Borovik highlighted evidentiary discrepancies, including the discovery of hexogen explosive — a substance allegedly sourced from FSB stockpiles — in connection with the attacks. He also pointed to the foiled bombing in Ryazan, where FSB operatives were caught planting a similar device in an apartment building, which the FSB later claimed was a "training exercise." These investigations challenged the Kremlin's narrative that Chechen terrorists were solely responsible and suggested the bombings had been orchestrated internally to justify escalated military action in Chechnya — the same investigation that would later cost journalist Anna Politkovskaya and former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko their lives.
Shortly before his death, according to some accounts, Borovik met with oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was at that time turning against Putin and funding investigations into FSB corruption. The nature of their discussions has never been fully disclosed.
Intelligence Connections
- Borovik was investigating the 1999 apartment bombings, which multiple independent investigators linked to the FSB
- His Versiya television program had questioned official narratives and implied potential FSB orchestration of the bombings
- He reportedly had materials about Putin that he planned to publish days after his death
- He had reportedly met with Boris Berezovsky shortly before the crash — Berezovsky was then funding anti-Putin investigations and would himself later die under suspicious circumstances in London in 2013
- Russia has a documented pattern of suspicious plane crashes involving critics and investigators — RFE/RL has catalogued multiple such incidents
- The crash killed all aboard, including Ziya Bazhayev, a Chechen oil magnate whose business interests intersected with Kremlin power struggles
Why This Death Raises Questions
- He died three days before he was reportedly set to publish damaging materials about Putin and the FSB
- The crash occurred 17 days before the March 26 presidential election that brought Putin to power
- The apartment bombings investigation was one of the most dangerous stories in Russia — multiple people who investigated it died, including Politkovskaya (shot 2006), Litvinenko (poisoned 2006), Sergei Yushenkov (shot 2003), and Yuri Shchekochikhin (poisoned 2003)
- Ziya Bazhayev, the Chechen oil executive who chartered the plane, was also killed — raising questions about whether he was also a target or whether the plane was chosen because both men were aboard
- The official explanation of cascading pilot errors — wrong flap settings, no de-icing, unauthorized taxiway entry — has been questioned by those who note that experienced crews rarely make so many simultaneous mistakes
- Russia has a pattern of suspicious aviation disasters targeting critics, as documented by RFE/RL
- Thousands attended Borovik's funeral in Moscow, reflecting his stature and the public sense that his death was not ordinary
Key Quotes
"Artyom Borovik's death came at a time when his investigative work on the apartment bombings made him one of the most dangerous journalists in Russia to the Kremlin." — Independent analysts
Colleagues noted that Borovik had told associates he was working on explosive material and expected to publish within days of his death.
According to historian Yuri Felshtinsky and political scientist Vladimir Pribylovsky, "Borovik's death may be linked to his publications about Vladimir Putin just before the presidential elections."
See Also
- Anna Politkovskaya — journalist also investigating apartment bombings, killed in 2006
- Alexander Litvinenko — former FSB officer who investigated apartment bombings, poisoned in 2006
- Sergei Yushenkov — Duma member investigating apartment bombings, shot in 2003
- Yuri Shchekochikhin — journalist investigating apartment bombings, poisoned in 2003
- Boris Berezovsky — oligarch who funded investigations into FSB, found dead in London in 2013
- Boris Nemtsov — opposition politician shot near the Kremlin in 2015
Other Shocking Stories
- Mohsen Fakhrizadeh: Iran's top nuclear scientist killed by an AI-assisted remote-controlled gun. No assassin was even present.
- Oscar Romero: Archbishop shot through the heart while saying mass. US-backed death squads. UN confirmed the killers.
- Manuel Buendia: Mexico's top columnist shot in the back for exposing CIA-cartel-secret police connections. His killer: the secret police chief.
- Denis Voronenkov: Russian lawmaker defected and testified against Russia. Shot dead in broad daylight on a Kyiv street.
Sources
- Artyom Borovik — Wikipedia
- Russia's Suspicious Plane Crashes — RFE/RL via GlobalSecurity.org
- Russia: Top Investigative Journalist Killed in Air Crash — Committee to Protect Journalists
- Thousands Mourn Russian Journalist — CBS News
- An Accident? — Newsweek
- Artyom Borovik — Prabook
- The Hidden War — Grove Atlantic
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