The Surrey estate where Russian tycoon Aleksandr Perepilichny collapsed in November 2012.
An inquest into the death of Russian businessman Alexander Perepilichny found that he "likely" died of natural causes - contradicting years of sensational reporting pointing to a Kremlin murder plot, some of which was even nominated for a Pulitzer prize.
Perepilichny, who collapsed near his home in Surrey, England in November 2012, had played a prominent role in aiding an investigation into the high profile Magnitsky case. After his death, he became the subject of a number of creatively-sourced articles.
Leading the way was BuzzFeed, which in June 2017 published a seven-part investigation that relied heavily upon the musings of a nameless "senior US intelligence official." The airtight source told the site that Perepilichny had been "assassinated on direct orders from Putin or people close to him" - an accusation that was dutifully relayed to BuzzFeed's readers.
Comment: How long do we have to wait before the majority of readers simply laugh off the endless BS spewed out by Luke Harding-like media trolls and their fictional (or lying) anonymous sources? The fact that they aren't universally mocked and ridiculed is a sign that our societies aren't quite sane. But maybe one day...
Comment: Patrick Armstrong points out the similarity of the case to another from 2008: the death of Badri Patarkatsishvili People who have enemies in common with Putin and the Russian state are in an advantageous position. They can murder said enemies safe in the fact that Western media will invariably blame Russia.