Mikhail Lesin, the former Russian press minister and aide to President Vladimir Putin who was found dead in a Washington, D.C., hotel last November, died from blunt force injuries, according to a new report from the chief medical examiner’s office.
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Mikhail Lesin, 57 – whose resume included heading the Russian Press Ministry and the giant Gazprom Media holding – also suffered blunt force injuries to the neck, torso, legs and arms, the Washington medical examiner’s office and police said in a joint statement. It was finished this week and results released initially to Mr Lesin’s family and then to the media, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said.
“We’re not willing to close off anything at this point”, said Dustin Sternbeck, D.C. police department’s chief spokesman.
A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in the United States said officials have requested information on the investigation for the past several months.
“We are waiting for Washington to give us the relevant information and official data about the investigation”, she wrote.
Police have refused to rule Lesin’s death a criminal act but said an investigation will continue.
“We have not received any detailed information through the channels established to deal with these situations”, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Credited for setting up Russia Today, the nation’s first state-funded English-language news channel, he was known as one the country’s most influential media operators and a long-time confidant to President Putin.
“District police said on Thursday that detectives who investigate apparent natural deaths were handling the case”.
Lesin was for quite a long time considered among the very powerful figures on the Russian media landscape as well as in the hallways of power.
Lesin was Russia’s minister of press, television and radio between 1999 and 2004, and later served as a Kremlin aide. Following his death, a Kremlin spokesperson insisted Mr Putin “appreciated” his “enormous contribution.to the formation of the contemporary Russian media”.
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He allegedly amassed millions of dollars in assets in Europe and the United States while working for the government, including $28 million (25 million euros) in real estate in Los Angeles.
