Medical examiner says former Putin aide found dead in Washington died of blunt force trauma

On Thursday, the D.C. medical examiner's office said a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was found dead in a hotel room last November didn't die from a heart attack, as his family believed, but rather from blunt force trauma to the head.

Mikhail Lesin, 59, was discovered in a Dupont Circle hotel room on Nov. 5, The Washington Post reports, and it's unclear why he was in Washington at the time. Lesin, who once served as a press minister and was the executive of GazpromMedia, also had injuries to his neck, torso, and upper and lower extremities, the medical examiner said in a statement. The examiner did not say if they were able to determine if the injuries were the result of an accident, crime, or something else.

After his death, Lesin's family told Russian news media that he had long-term illnesses, and it was likely he died from a heart attack. A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said the Russian Embassy in the U.S. has not been provided with "any substantive information" on Lesin's death, and is "waiting for clarification from Washington and the relevant official details on the progress of the investigation."

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