Mikhail Lesin was found in the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, DC on the morning of November 5, 2015, dead from a blunt force trauma injury to his head. He'd been drinking heavily and the initial report of his demise suggested that he had fallen in a drunken stupor and hit his head. What makes this almost forgotten story intriguing is that Lesin was once Russian thug Vladimir Putin's media czar, founder of Russia Today (RT), and someone who had fallen out of favor with the Kremlin. The DC Metropolitan Police issued a report in 2017 that was heavily redacted and that relied on witnesses to his bout of drinking in the hours leading up to his death.
On February 13, 2019, a District of Columbia judge ordered the DC Medical Examiner's office to release the autopsy report and related documents on Lesin's death under a Freedom of Information suit by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. The report and documentation could lead to evidence that Lesin was murdered on the Kremlin's orders because of indications that he was close to leaking information about Russian money laundering and corruption. His suspicious death was also noted in the Steele dossier as a likely Putin-ordered assassination.
The linked AP article notes a disturbing fact: that two hours of security video are missing immediately after Lesin was last seen alive at the Dupont Circle Hotel, among other things:
"Yet there is intrigue surrounding the case, fed by circumstantial evidence: It seems odd for someone Lesin’s age to die of blunt force trauma while alone in a room. There is also a gap in security video footage for the hours after Lesin was last seen alive. The police report eventually released to the public has been heavily redacted.Reopening this investigation will likely draw opposition from Russia and their asset, sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump, but it's necessary to get to the truth behind this suspicious death.
Above all, there is a long history of high-profile Russians turning up dead or seriously ill in foreign countries. In 2006, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died a few weeks after being dosed with a radioactive isotope in London; and in March 2018, former Russian spy turned double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia narrowly escaped death after being dosed with a nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury." (our emphasis)
(photo: TASS. Putin and Mikhail Lesin in friendlier times)
