The death last year in
Washington of Mikhail Lesin, a Russian media executive and former adviser to
President Vladimir Putin, was accidental and caused partly by alcohol poisoning
after days of heavy drinking, U.S. authorities said on Friday.
Lesin, who was found dead in
his hotel room on Nov. 5, 2015 at the age of 57, died partly from "acute
ethanol intoxication," according to a statement by Washington's
Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District
of Columbia.
Lesin served as Putin's press
minister from 1999 to 2004. He was named head of Russia's state-controlled
Gazprom-Media in 2013 but resigned the following year and moved to Los Angeles.
In 2014, U.S. Senator Roger
Wicker asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Lesin for violating
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Wicker, a Republican, questioned how Lesin
was able to purchase $28 million worth of property in Los Angeles after he
stopped working for the Russian government.
While Lesin's death sparked
rumors of foul play at the time, law enforcement officials said the Justice
Department had no open investigation of the case. On the night he died, Lesin
was scheduled to attend a Washington gala honoring Russian billionaire and
philanthropist Pyotr Aven, according to Radio Free Europe. But he never showed
up.
The statement issued by U.S.
authorities said Lesin entered his room at the Dupont Circle Hotel in
Washington for the last time "after days of excessive alcohol
consumption."
After reviewing video footage
and evidence gathered during an investigation of Lesin's death, Washington's chief
medical examiner concluded he died "as a result of blunt force injuries to
his head, with contributing causes being blunt force injuries of the neck,
torso, upper extremities and lower extremities, which were induced by falls,
with acute ethanol intoxication," the statement said.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball;
Editing by Paul Simao)
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