Mystery as anti-war Russian TV chef exiled to London is found dead

An outspoken anti-war Russian TV chef exiled to London has been found dead in a hotel room in Serbia, according to reports. 

Alexei Zimin, 52, who owned Zima restaurant in Soho, is understood to have died on a trip to Belgrade.

He had not returned to Russia since he was exiled following his criticism of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Crimea.

His television gastronomic show on NTV channel was then abruptly cancelled in 2022 after he posted anti-war songs. 

Zimin, who had a wife and 17-year-old daughter, also worked as the editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of GQ as well as Afisha Mir and Gourmet.

Details of his death in Serbia are scarce and his cause of death remains unclear.

However Moskvich magazine in Russia said he had been found dead in a hotel in Belgrade where he had been on an advertised tour promoting his new book called Anglomania.

A statement today from his Zima magazine said: 'Alexei Zimin, the project's editor-in-chief and the chef of the Zima restaurant, has passed away.'

It added: 'For us, 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.

'Thank you to everyone for the words we receive 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 previously had several cooking shows in Russia, which had run for 11 years before being halted amid his criticism of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. 

His London restaurant in Frith Street was advertised as offering 'Russian cuisine with a modern twist in the heart of Soho'.

His Zima Club ran 'various 'workshops, parties and other events' and is popular with Russian expats in the UK.

It was seen as providing a platform for Russians labelled 'foreign agents' by the Kremlin, and forced into exile.

Zimin is survived by his wife Tatiana 'Tanya' Dolmatovskaya, a costume designer who previously worked at Vogue Russia and graduated from the University of the Arts London, and their daughter Varvara, 17.

In a post three months after Putin's invasion he said: 'Russia will be free, one way or another, or the third, more mysterious, way.'

On his cancellation by pro-Kremlin NTV, he said: '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.

'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.'

He had also posted: 'Stop the war. Withdraw troops. Return our soldiers home.'

He is seen on a video singing lyrics by famous Soviet and Russian poet and songwriter Bulat Okudzhava - Grab Your Coat, and Let's Go Home.

This song reflects on the experiences of war-ravaged soldiers longing for home and peace.

The lines include 'the war that mowed us down in thousands, years of mothers without children and 'go grab your coat, and let's go home.' 

Zimin joins a list of Russians who have died early after fleeing Putin's rule to the UK.

They include oligarch and political fixer Boris Berezovsky, who was found hanged in his Berkshire home in 2013, and his associate Nikolai Glushkov, found dead from compression to the neck five years later.

Putin's secret services poisoned former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko with deadly radioactive polonium-210 in London in 2008.

He died but an attempt to kill Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who spied for the UK, failed despite the use of nerve agent novichok.