Soviet’s friends want inquiry

Press, 23 October 1989, Page 4

Soviet’s friends want inquiry

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Friends of a Soviet yachtsman, Aleksei Grishenko, whose body was found hanging from a tree in a Uruguayan resort, have questioned suggestions that he killed himself and are demanding a criminal investigation.

The Soviet newspaper “Izvestia” said that friends had written to the Soviet prosecutor and the Foreign Ministry challenging the suicide scenario.

The newspaper said a childhood illness had weakened Grishenko’s legs, leaving him unable to run, much less climb a tree from which he could hang himself.

“His friends emphasised Aleksei’s psychological toughness,” the newspaper said. The body of Grishenko,

the co-skipper of the Soviet Union’s first entry into the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, was found hanging from a tree near Punta del Este on October 11. x

The next day the official Soviet news agency Tass said Grishenko had committed suicide, leaving behind a note asking his wife and parents to forgive him. “He expressed regret that he was unable to fulfill the role of captain adequately,” the Tass report said. Grishenko co-skippered the Pepsi Fazisi, sponsored by Pepsi Cola, with American Skip Novak. The yacht finished sixth in the first leg of the 33,000-nautical-mile race on October 1. It started with the rest of the fleet from Southampton on September 2.