A BRITISH photographer has been questioned by cops after a Russian model drowned during a photoshoot in the Med.
Playboy centrefold Galina Fedorova, 32, was found dead by coastguards after apparently going for a swim with snapper Yev Taranovs.
The pair were heading to a remote Sardinian island on a hired inflatable boat for an assignment when Taranovs said they stopped and went for a dip.
But the boat, littered with booze bottles, broke from its anchor and beached on a nearby reef at Isola Rossa off the Sardinian south-east coast.
Taranovs told Italian cops they tried to swim for the boat, but he then lost sight of Galina and shouted for help to a nearby vessel.
He was taken to Sardinia while a chopper found Galina lifeless in the water.
Cops also seized a drone used for the photoshoot.
A police source said: “There is interest in the drone footage as this happened very close to a Nato firing range. We have to make sure the assignment was not a cover for a spying mission.”
Taranovs, 42, from Twickenham, South West London, had earlier posted on Instagram about his trip to “paradise”.
There is also a video of him steering a boat at speed with the caption: “A sailor went to sea sea sea.”
Paris-based Galina described herself as a “model, traveller, yoga lover, hedonist and earth patriot”.
On her Instagram page a pal broke the news to her 100,000 followers, telling them: “Sorry to say but Galina got into an accident in Italy and it didn’t end well.”
Taranovs was treated for shock after last Saturday’s tragedy. A post-mortem on Galina found she drowned.
A police spokeswoman said: “The current took the boat towards the reef and they tried to swim towards it but were unable to reach it.”
She said the male survivor has been questioned, adding: “Bottles of alcohol were found on the boat.”
The Foreign Office said it was “offering advice and support to a British man in Sardinia”.
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