Russian journalist Inessa Papernaya, known for her work with lenta.ru and profile.ru, was tragically found dead in a hotel in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on October 20. It has been reported that Papernaya was in Uzbekistan on vacation, and was staying at the Karaman Palace Hotel with a companion, Maxim Radchenko, with whom she was in a long-term relationship, and whom she had traveled with in order to meet his relatives.
According to reports, hotel staff knocked on the door of her room that evening while delivering a package. After receiving no response, they entered the room and discovered the bodies of Papernaya and Radchenko. An Uzbek citizen was subsequently found dead in the bathroom of another room in the hotel.
Preliminary reports attributed the cause of the deaths to poisoning of “unknown origin,” with early suggestions being propagated that gas seeped into the room through the ventilation system after the hotel’s pool was cleaned on October 19-20, leading to the tragic incident.
Following the discovery, authorities sealed off the Karaman Palace Hotel. The General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan has launched an investigation under Article 186 of the Uzbek Criminal Code, which covers the provision of unsafe services, and a forensic examination has been ordered to determine the precise cause of death.
Relatives of Radchenko have disputed what they have described as several different versions of the deaths which have been put forward. According to Radchenko’s sister, the family were initially told that “he had an epileptic seizure; she ran up to him, slipped, fell, hit herself and died. This is some kind of TV series: how do you fall? What nonsense… Then there was a version about drugs, since their bodies were in the bathroom, that meant they were drug addicts.”
In a further twist challenging the official narrative regarding gas seepage related to the pool being cleaned, Radchenko’s sister has categorically stated that “there is no pool there.” Meanwhile, no websites advertising rooms at the Karaman Palace make any mention of a pool, with some stating outright that this facility is not available.
Hayat Shamsutdinov, press secretary of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan, has confirmed that the bodies will be transported to Moscow for a joint cremation to be held on October 25.
