A day after authorities in Washington confirmed an autopsy shows blunt force trauma caused the death of a former aide to the Russian president, Russian officials say they’ve been requesting information about the probe without results.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a Facebook post Friday that the Russian Embassy made multiple requests for information about the investigation into the death of Mikhail Lesin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s former press minister, and received no substantive material.
Lesin’s body was found at the Doyle Dupont Circle Hotel in November. Russian media had reported that Lesin suffered a heart attack, citing relatives.
“We haven’t received any detailed information via formal channels of communication that (we use) for such cases, and in the light of these media reports we hope that we will receive the detailed information,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday.
District of Columbia police spokesman Officer Hugh Carew confirmed the autopsy results show the cause of Lesin’s death was blunt force trauma to the head, but the manner of death was undetermined. Police continue to investigate Lesin’s death, he said.
The D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement that other contributing causes were blunt force injuries of the neck, torso, arms and legs.
Russia’s top prosecutor, Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika, asked his American counterpart, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, for information about the Lesin case.
“Yuri Chaika today sent his American colleague an inquiry about providing documents and materials necessary for ascertaining the cause and circumstances of the death of Mikahil Lesin,” Chaika’s spokesman Saak Karapetian was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Lesin was a media adviser to Putin who helped found the English-language news service Russia Today. At the time of his death, however, he had not been involved in the publication’s work for years.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
I would guess that to be an aide to Putin is a voluntary job. You probably have to be part of his apparatus for a while. Sorry guy, you played with fire and got seriously burned. That’s what you get for cozying up to people like Putin. I’ll bet you thought you were big stuff for a while. Hey, man, I’m somebody. I’m kissing the behind of the right guy. You probably got what you had coming!!
The police seem to be keeping things on the QT; pure speculation, here, but based on the multiple bruisings on various parts of his body, it’s likely that this was a hit – or maybe a warning that went awry.
Not hearing enough detail to even float a reasonable theory as to the “why,” though.
Much better to be an aide to Putin than an aide to Hillary or Obama!!!
Or a High Court Judge of the USA whom the Obu-Obu President doesn’t like?
Another KGB hit job for and on behalf of Putin – like all the other high profile murders of Russian citizens and opposition leaders.