Author of critical book about Putin asks for asylum in UK

A Russian journalist who wrote a highly critical book about President Vladimir Putin has asked for political asylum in Britain, claiming her life was in “mortal danger,” she said today.

Yelena Tregubova, a former Kremlin reporter for Kommersant, one of Russia’s leading newspapers, in 2003 penned Tales Of A Kremlin Digger, in which she accused Putin of curbing freedom of speech, but also described juicy details, such as her alleged intimate private dinner with Putin when he was still the country’s top security official.

In a telephone interview from London, Tregubova said she had filed her application to Britain’s Home Office on Monday because she was afraid to return home.

“For me coming back would be a suicide,” Tregubova said. “I am convinced that if I return my life would be in mortal danger.”

Tregubova declined to provide details.

Boris Berezovsky, the tycoon who became a Putin critic and went into exile in Britain, said that Russian investigators this month had asked him about Tregubova’s whereabouts.

The agents were allowed to question Berezovsky as part of an investigation into last year’s fatal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.