A Russian billionaire and former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin died in a Washington, D.C., hotel room from blunt force trauma to the head, the District’s medical examiner and Metropolitan Police announced Thursday.
The medical examiner’s report only partially explained what happened to Mikhail Lesin, 59, who was found unresponsive in the Dupont Circle Hotel in November.
Lesin was a bureaucrat who served as a press minister and the head of Gazprom-Media, which The Washington Post said controls much of Russia’s press. He reportedly served as a presidential adviser from 2004 to 2009.
The medical examiner also found injuries to Lesin’s neck, body and lower and upper extremities, but didn’t determine a manner of death, which would explain the events leading up to his demise.
The D.C. Medical Examiner’s office declined to discuss their findings. The Metropolitan Police Department is actively investigating Lesin's death.
Before he died, the FBI and Department of Justice were investigating Lesin for possible money laundering, according to The Daily Beast.
The murky circumstances of his death engendered speculation that he was murdered, while his family had told Russian media that he died from “heart stroke.”