His family initially said the cause of death was a heart attack, but after a year-long investigation Washington's chief medical examiner and federal authorities released a joint statement saying Lesin died of blunt-force trauma to his head, induced by falls amid acute ethanol intoxication.
[4][5] A leaked report by Christopher Steele for the FBI said Lesin was bludgeoned to death by men working for an oligarch close to Putin.
[14] He began the slogan "Voice of the Heart", authored "I believe, I do, I hope" and "Save and Protect", and provided the president's weekly radio address to the country.
[8][14][15] From 1997 to 1999, he was first deputy chairman of the VGTRK (ВГТРК), which essentially brought state run television under one roof and follows the designs of Vladislav Surkov.
Through Lesin's support, the pro-Kremlin Unity bloc gained power and the incoming Prime Minister Putin succeeded Yeltsin as the Russian president.
[1][8][14] Continuing under President Putin from 1999 until 9 March 2004 as Ministry of Press, Broadcasting and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, Lesin essentially merged a private advertising agency, Video International, which controlled 65–70% of the television advertising market, with the state owned media companies, and thus brought tremendous wealth to Video International.
[14] In 2011, he moved to Beverly Hills, California, and enjoyed ocean fishing, being with his family, and helping his son Anton in the Hollywood movie business.
[14][28] Lesin led the Kremlin's efforts to censor Russia's independent television outlets, according to accusations by US Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) in 2014.
[30][34] In a 29 July 2014 letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, Wicker wrote Lesin and his immediate family had "acquired multi-million dollar assets" in Europe and the United States "during his tenure as a civil servant", including multiple residences in Los Angeles worth $28 million.
[30]"Navalny Letter 2014-07-31" />[35] On 3 December 2014, Assistant Attorney General Peter J. Kadzik replied to Senator Wicker's letter by stating the Justice Department's Criminal Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have been referred for appropriate disposition of Lesin and "similarly situated Russian individuals and companies with assets in the United States that may be in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Statutes".
[4] The Russian news agency TASS reported that an early investigation did not find any signs of violent death, quoting a police spokesman, Sean Hickman, as saying security had not seen anything suspicious.
[45][52][57][44][58] On 28 October 2016, after a year-long investigation, Washington's chief medical examiner and federal authorities released a joint statement saying Lesin died of blunt-force trauma to his head, sustained in his hotel room induced by falls amid acute ethanol intoxication.
An unnamed FBI agent told BuzzFeed, "What I can tell you is that there isn't a single person inside the bureau who believes this guy got drunk, fell down, and died.
It says the hit men were Russian state security agents moonlighting for the oligarch and that the death occurred just prior to a scheduled meeting between Lesin and U.S. Justice Department officials to discuss the inner workings of RT.
Multiple forensic pathologists and medical examiners who saw the released autopsy results raised questions about the official conclusions, and said the evidence suggested possible murder and not a drunken fall.
Since 2012, Anton has been a Hollywood film producer, with credits including Rage (originally Tokarev), Haunt, Sabotage, Fading Gigolo, Fury, Rock the Kasbah, The Family Fang, and Dirty Grandpa.
[28][39]"Westside Today Nanny 2014-10-20" />[72][73] In 2015, Mikhail had a daughter with Victoria Rakhimbayeva (Russian: Виктория Рахимбаева; born 1986), a former Maxim model with whom he had been close since mid-2014.