Kaliningrad-based broadcast journalist Olga Kotovskaya fell to her death from a fourteenth-floor window on 16 November, in what authorities quickly termed a “suicide”, according to local news reports. However, colleagues and others close to the journalist believe that Kotovskaya – who had recently won a key court battle linked to her broadcaster – was murdered in relation to her work.

In recent years, Kotovskaya, co-founder and former editor-in-chief of independent Kaliningrad broadcaster “Kaskad”, had been embroiled in a lawsuit with the Russian enclave’s former vice-governor, Vladimir Pirogov, over control of the station.

Pirogov had taken charge of Kaskad from Kotovskaya and her partners in 2006, using board documentation that Kotovskaya claimed contained forged signatures.

A week before her death, the Kaliningrad Court of Arbitration upheld Kotovskaya’s forgery claims, opening the possibility of the return of Kaskad’s ownership to its original owners.

However, on 16 November, Kotovskaya’s body was found on the pavement near a Kaliningrad tower block, report local media. She had apparently fallen from a fourteenth-floor window and died instantly.

Local authorities immediately pronounced the death a suicide, provoking outrage from journalists and opposition figures, who believe Kotovskaya was murdered in connection to her work.

“We insist that the suicide version is the most convenient; thus, we urge you not to choose the easiest path, but to consider other versions,” said the regional branch of the Russian Union of Journalists in a statement.

“She was murdered,” said Igor Rudnikov, Kotovskaya’s husband and former co-owner of Kaskad, according to the Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations. “If I am found dead on the rails, do not believe I committed suicide,” he continued.

“There is not even an explanation as to why Kotovskaya was in the building from which she allegedly fell,” Alexei Simenov of the Moscow-based Glasnost Defence Foundation told IPI. “The building had nothing to do with her; she had no reason to be there.”

Given the outcry from local media and individuals close to Kotovskaya, police are now rethinking their approach to her death, and have not ruled out a murder investigation. A decision is expected in the coming days, said Simenov.

“The authorities bear a tremendous responsibility here. All suspicious deaths must of course be investigated fully, but given the dreadful impunity surrounding the killing of journalists in Russia, this case is especially significant,” said IPI Deputy Director, Alison Bethel McKenzie. “We call for a full, transparent investigation into this death, and the circumstances surrounding it.”

Russia is Europe’s deadliest country for journalists. Should it be proved that Kotovskaya was indeed assassinated, her death would bring the number of journalists murdered in the country this year to at least six.