Soviet television announcer Viktor Balashov has died at the age of 96.

The cause of death of the presenter and the place of the farewell ceremony with him were not disclosed, Tehsil.biz reports quoting Rosiya-24.

Viktor Balashov was born in 1924 in Moscow. In 1944, he began working as an announcer on All-Union Radio. On April 12, 1961, Balashov broadcast the first information about Yuri Gagarin's space flight.