Bart is "Mr. Credible", for sure.

Note that the Russian press gets his first name wrong -- it's Andrian, not Adrian. That's the ultimate insult to a 'has-been' -- the news of your death is misspelled. Unless the transcription of the broadcasts, as heard, was the source of the error.

Here is confirmation, too:

Moscow Radio Rossii in Russian 2000 GMT 03 Jul 04
Item 8. Adrian Nikolayev, so-called cosmonaut number three, has died of a heart attack. He was 75.

Moscow Center TV in Russian 1000 GMT 04 Jul 04
Presented by Samir Shakhbaz
Item 7: 10:08:35 GMT: Cosmonaut Adrian Nikolayev has died. Presenter-read report over archive footage.

Moscow NTV Mir in Russian 1500 GMT 04 Jul 04
"Segodnya" news program, presented by Olga Belova
Item 6. 15:15:12 GMT: Russian astronaut Adrian Nikolayev died in Chuvashia. He was the third man to go into space.

Moscow RenTV in Russian 1530 GMT 04 Jul 04
Item 4. 15: 35:19 GMT: Third man in space Adrian Nikolayev has died in Cheboksary, Chuvashia. Correspondent Sergey Tugushev profiles the Soviet cosmonaut over archive footage and reminiscences of fellow cosmonaut Georgiy Grechko by telephone.

Weekend Australian:

Soviet cosmonaut dies
From correspondents in Moscow
July 04, 2004
COSMONAUT Andrian Nikolayev, whose 1962 flight into space set an endurance record at the time, has died, Russian media reported today. He was 74.

Mr Nikolayev died yesterday in Cheboksary, the capital of his native Chuvash Autonomous Republic, where he was judging the All-Russian rural sport games, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Alexander Kurashov, a member of the games organising committee.
Mr Kurashov said that Mr Nikolayev suffered a heart attack and was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Mr Nikolayev became Russia's third cosmonaut to travel into space when he and Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich were launched in separate crafts in August 1962. The pair made the first simultaneous flights, and Mr Nikolayev set a separate endurance record, circling the Earth 64 times in 96 hours.
He returned to space in 1970 for his second and final mission onboard the Soyuz 9 craft. Altogether, he spent more than 200 hours in space, according to Russian media reports.
Twice named a Hero of the Soviet Union, Mr Nikolayev was a key member of the proud Soviet cosmonaut corps, which included Yuri Gagarin, the first man to fly into space in 1961.
Mr Nikolayev was married to Valentina Tereshkova, who in 1963 became the first woman to travel to space, but they later divorced.
Details about his funeral service were not immediately available