An autopsy has found that blunt force trauma to the head was the cause of death for a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin whose body was found in the hotel.
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In 2013, he was named head of Russia’s largest and most powerful media holdings, Gazprom-Media, a position he left abruptly in 2015 after a row with a prominent liberal radio editor over whether to fire a journalist that had been critical of the Kremlin.
Police are investigating whether former Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin, who was found dead in a Washington hotel in November, was brutally assaulted before he returned to the hotel, a USA law enforcement source said on Friday.
On Thursday evening, District of Columbia police and the medical examiner’s office said in a joint statement that the cause of Lesin’s death was blunt force trauma to the head and contributing causes were blunt force injuries to the neck, torso, arms and legs.
Responding to the reports, the Kremlin on Friday said it expected USA authorities to provide it with official information on the investigation’s progress so far.
After serving as an adviser to Mr Putin, Mr Lesin headed state-controlled Gazprom-Media from 2009, helping to launch the English language channel RT. The medical examiner did not determine whether the injuries were the result of a crime, an accident or something else, according to the Washington Post.
She did not comment on Russian media reports that Lesin had been a potential Federal Bureau of Investigation informant.
Fields said the manner in which Lesin died was still undetermined.
An unnamed representative of the Russian embassy in Washington was quoted by the RIA Novosti state news agency as saying: “We intend to make requests (to the US) in order to receive answers to the questions that are worrying the Russian side”.
The 57-year-old was discovered in his room at the Doyle Dupont Circle Hotel in November and Russian media, citing relatives, had previously reported that Mr Lesin suffered a heart attack.
Press secretary Yury Melnik said: “No substantial information has been provided”. It is also unclear why Lesin was in Washington.
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Lesin had been under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department for potential money laundering. Mr Lesin owned multi-million-dollar properties in the United States and Europe, including a reported $28m (£19m) in Beverly Hills real estate.
