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              Russia Presses for Details in Ex-Putin Aide's Death

   by VOA News

   Russian officials complain they've been frustrated in repeated efforts
   to get information about the mysterious death of Mikhail Lesin, a
   former aide to President Vladimir Putin whose battered body was found
   in a Washington hotel room four months ago.

   Senior Russian officials spoke out hours after authorities in the U.S.
   capital issued a brief statement explaining the Russian media magnate's
   death was caused by "blunt force trauma." The Russian Foreign
   Ministry's chief spokeswoman indicated a high-level diplomatic request
   was on the way to Washington.

   News of developments in the Lesin case broke late Thursday when police
   in Washington and the office of the city's medical examiner said in a
   joint statement that his death was caused by head injuries, but that he
   also had suffered injuries to his neck, torso, arms and legs. The
   statement did not indicate what caused the blunt-force head injury, and
   it did not explain whether Lesin, who was in his late 50s, died by
   accident or was murdered.

   In Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the
   Russian Embassy in Washington has received no "substantive information"
   about Lesin's death despite repeated inquiries through diplomatic
   channels, and was only aware of media reports about the autopsy.

   Now, however, Zakharova wrote in a Facebook post, "Russian authorities
   will send a request to the Americans for international legal
   assistance."

   Authorities in Washington said their investigation was continuing, and
   declined to answer reporters' questions about whether Lesin's death was
   caused by a criminal act. The State Department referred all questions
   about the case to law enforcement agencies.

   Lesin was found dead in his hotel room on November 5, two days after he
   unexpectedly failed to appear at a gala dinner elsewhere in Washington.
   The New York Times quoted an unidentified official Friday as saying
   that Lesin's extensive injuries were the result of "some sort of
   altercation" that occurred before he returned to his hotel room.

   Lesin, a former media adviser and press secretary to Putin, had helped
   launch the Kremlin-backed English-language news agency Russia Today,
   which says its mission is "to convey Russian positions to the
   international audience."

   He became the chief of Gazprom-Media Holding beginning in 2013 but
   stepped down the following year, [1]RadioFreeEurope/Radio Liberty
   reported Friday.

   Leslin was the subject of a U.S. senator's request to the U.S. Justice
   Department in 2014 to investigate whether Lesin broke U.S. laws against
   money laundering in buying several expensive homes in Los Angeles. The
   California homes were purchased in the name of a corporation controlled
   by Lesin.

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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/russi-presses-for-details-in-ex-putin
   -aide-death/3231820.html

References

   1. http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-lesin-died-blunt-trauma-press-minister-rt-founder/27603373.html
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/russi-presses-for-details-in-ex-putin-aide-death/3231820.html