Story By: Anastasia Smirnova, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder,Agency: Central European News
A 29-year-old magazine editor and his wife have died after reportedly taking drugs and being found in bed by their young son.
According to local media, Aleksander Rai, the founder and editor-in-chief of weekly digital magazine ‘T-Zh’, was found dead in the flat he shared with his family in the western Russian capital Moscow.
Reports said that the couple’s five-year-old son called his grandmother after failing to wake his parents up.
The boy was getting hungry and his nan reportedly popped over to check on things.
According to local media, Rai and his wife were found dead in their home. It is believed they were killed by intoxication, although the local authorities have yet to confirm which substance caused the deaths.
However, the police did confirm that there were no signs of violence on the victims’ bodies.
Russian news site ‘click-or-die.ru’ quoted a source called ‘Palach’ (‘Executioner’) stating that the cause of deaths was an overdose of potent drugs.
Rai launched the ‘T-Zh’ magazine five years ago after changing its format from a standard blog to a full-scale newsletter magazine.
Reports said it is owned by the Russian commercial bank Tinkoff.
Staff members hailed Rai as a talented leader and they posted tributes to their former editor-in-chief on the magazine’s social media pages.
One message said: “Today, we learned that Aleksander passed away.
“This is a man who created ‘T-Zh’ five years ago and quickly expanded it from a banking blog into the product you read today.
“The whole team is in mourning.”
The team exclusively confirmed to Central European News (CEN) that the autopsy findings will be made public, but did not specify when this will happen.
Tinkoff Bank, founded by Oleg Tinkov in 2006, does not have branches and is considered a digital ‘neobank’.
As of 2016, Tinkoff Bank has a credit rating of B+ on the Fitch Ratings and B2 on the Moody’s Rating, and is the second largest provider of credit cards in Russia.
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