Russian media mogul found dead in upscale D.C. hotel
Mikhail Lesin, a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin who helped found the English-language news service Russia Today (RT), was found dead in an upscale Washington hotel room, police and Russian officials said. He was 57.
Although there was no evidence of foul play–reported as a heart attack– homicide detectives were investigating Lesin’s death, police said Saturday. Beverly Fields, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, said the cause and manner of death remained undetermined on Saturday.
Lesin served as Russian press minister from 1999 to 2004 and presidential media adviser from 2004 to 2009, RT said. He then became a senior executive at Gazprom-Media, Russia’s largest media holding company.
In 1984, he graduated from the Engineering and Construction Institute. He worked for five years at Minpromstroya aka The Ministry of Industrial Construction of the USSR.
His daughter Catherine ran RT in the USA for awhile. Current status?? His son Anton is a Hollywood film producer with credits including Rage (originally Tokarev), Haunt, Sabotage, Fading Gigolo, Fury, Rock the Kasbah, The Family Fang, and Dirty Grandpa. Anton and Sasha Shapiro (male) operate QED Holdings and are principal financiers of the global media fund, Media Content Capital (McC), and formed Covert Media.