Mikhail Lesin
Mikhail Lesin | |
---|---|
Михаил Лесин | |
Federal Agency for Mass Media) | |
Head of the Presidential Office for Public Relations | |
In office 14 September 1996 – 10 March 1997 | |
President | Boris Yeltsin |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Mikhail Margelov |
Personal details | |
Born | RSFSR, Soviet Union | 11 July 1958
Died | 5 November 2015 Washington, D.C., United States | (aged 57)
Resting place | Los Angeles, California, United States |
Mikhail Yuryevich Lesin (
Lesin died in a Washington, D.C., hotel room under unusual circumstances. 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.
Biography
Lesin was born in
From 1976 to 1978, Lesin served in the
In the late 1980s, the New York firm National Video Industry attempted to establish its Moscow subsidiary Video Industry but could not obtain a proper registration although the firm had printed stationery and stored them in Moscow warehouses.
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.[17] It was counter to the Western approach, which would have ended state owned media by promoting a free press that is not state owned and operated.[1][8][13]
On 6 June 1999, and largely from Lesin's background among Video International, Novosti, and VGTRK, Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin appointed Lesin to head the Ministry of Press, Broadcasting and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. After Stepashin's brief tenure, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin retained Lesin as minister and allowed him to be a key figure in the 1999 Russian parliamentary elections and the 2000 Russian presidential election. 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][13]
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.[1][8][13]
During Putin's first term as Russian president with Lesin as Minister of the Press,
In the 2002 Telegrand (Russian: Телегранд), the Expert Council of the National Research Center of Television and Radio[b] named Lesin as "the most influential person of Russian television and radio".[6]
Under Putin from 6 April 2004 until 18 November 2009, he became adviser to the President of the Russian Federation for mass media relations.[1][8][13] During his tenure and beginning in 2005, Lesin helped conceive and create the RT (Russia Today) television news network, he said, "to establish a news channel that would counter CNN and BBC with a Moscow spin. It's been a long time since I was scared by the word propaganda. We need to promote Russia internationally. Otherwise, we'd just look like roaring bears on the prowl."[13][22]
From 2010 to 2011, Lesin was on the board of directors for National Telecommunications (NTC),[c] which at the time belonged to the National Media Group.[13]
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.[13][23][24][25] Lesin's old friend Alexander Shapiro, a former vice president of Warner Bros.,[26] is a co-producer with Anton in several films.[25][26]"HollywoodReporter 2015-11-15" />
In 2013, he returned to Russia and, from 1 October 2013 until 12 January 2015, was head of Gazprom-Media, a state-controlled media giant that describes itself as one of the largest media groups in Russia and Europe.[27][28][d] In April 2014, he became chairman of the Russian Association of Film and Television Producers.[29][30] He resigned from Gazprom-Media in December 2014, citing family reasons.[27] After retiring, he spent several months in Switzerland for treatments to a spinal injury that he received while skiing and then returned to his home in California.[13][25]
Corruption allegations
Lesin led the
- $13.8 million house of 1,200 square metres (13,000 sq ft) at 10 Beverly Park, Beverly Hills, California[e]
- $9 million house of 980 square metres (10,500 sq ft) at 321[clarification needed] Bristol Avenue, Brentwood, Los Angeles, California[f]
- $5.6 million house of 630 square metres (6,800 sq ft) in Beverly Park, Los Angeles, California[g]
- $4.3 million house along Mulholland Drive at 13327 Java Drive, Beverly Hills, California[h]
- $3.995 million house of 570 square metres (6,100 sq ft) in Palisades Highlands, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California[i]
It's unclear if the FBI ever initiated a probe.[27][39]
Death
Lesin was found dead before noon on Thursday, 5 November 2015, in The Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, D.C.[27][40][41][42] He was found without any identification in a hotel room that was in his name.[43][j] The original police report indicated an unknown victim in the room which was booked in his name.[43] On 7 November, a member of the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed the identity of the individual as Mikhail Yuriyevich Lesin.[43][45][46] A law enforcement official said there were no obvious signs of forced entry or foul play in his hotel room and that on the video surveillance, Lesin appeared disheveled when he returned to his hotel room.[4]
The Russian news agency
On 10 March 2016, Mashable stated that they had been informed by Beverly Fields, of the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, that Lesin's cause of death was "blunt force injuries to the head", and that Lesin's body showed signs of "blunt force injuries of the neck, torso, upper extremities and lower extremities".[53] During a 10 March press conference, LaShon Beamon, spokesperson for the department of forensic sciences in the medical examiner's office, and Hugh Carew, a spokesman for the police, released an official joint statement that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head but the manner of death was still classified as "undetermined".[42][49][54][41][55]
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.
- "Mr. Lesin entered his hotel room on the morning of Nov. 4 … after days of excessive consumption of alcohol and sustained the injuries that resulted in his death while alone in his hotel room... [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 amid acute ethanol intoxication."[5]
Lesin was cremated and buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.[56][57][58][m]
Murder allegations
In July 2017, BuzzFeed reported that multiple intelligence agencies believed Lesin was assassinated. 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. Everyone thinks he was whacked and that Putin or the Kremlin were behind it." The weapon was said to be a baseball bat.[60]
In 2018, BuzzFeed published details of a leaked report written for the FBI by Christopher Steele. The secret report, unconfirmed by the FBI, alleges that Lesin was bludgeoned to death by men working for an oligarch close to Putin. The report says the men were ordered to scare but not kill Lesin, but went too far. 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. According to BuzzFeed, three other people told a similar story to the FBI, independent of the Steele report.[61]
Lesin's autopsy report was released in 2019 after a protracted 2-year legal battle by RFE/RL which filed a Freedom of Information Act request. 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. For example, there was a broken neck bone that rarely breaks in falls, but does break commonly during strangulation. Other injuries included soft-tissue hemorrhaging on muscles running along the sides and back of the neck, also similar to what is seen during strangulation.[62]
Family
Lesin was from a Jewish family.[7] He was married to Valentina Ivanova and had a daughter, Catherine, from his first marriage in 1979; and a son, Anton, from his second marriage in 1983. Lesin had five grandchildren at the time of his death.
Catherine, aka Yekaterina/Ekaterina Lesina, led the RT bureau in the United States.
Anton attended a Swiss university and is a producing graduate of the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. 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.[63] With Bill Block's 2015 departure as CEO from QED International and following Paul Hanson's 2015 departure from Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures, Anton and Sasha Shapiro operate QED Holdings as its principal financiers through the global media fund, Media Content Capital (MCC), and formed Covert Media in 2014, adding Paul Hanson as CEO in 2015, to make three to four $10 million to $50 million films a year.[63][64][65][66][67][68] He is often credited as "Anton Lessine". Anton and Swiss wife, Carole, have two children.[25][36]"Westside Today Nanny 2014-10-20" />[69][70]
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.[71]
Awards and honours
- 2006: Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" for "outstanding contribution to the activities of the President of the Russian Federation and many years of honest work".[72]
- 2008: Russian Federation Presidential Certificate of Honour for "outstanding contribution to the activities of the President of the Russian Federation and many years of honest work".[73]
Notes
- ^ Since 15 June 1993, the Moscow Engineering and Construction Institute (Russian: Московский инженерно-строительный институт им. В.В. Куйбышева (МИСИ им. В.В. Куйбышева)) is known as the Moscow State Construction University (Russian: Национальный исследовательский университе́т Московский государственный строительный университет (НИУ МГСУ).
- ^ Expert Council of the National Research Center of Television and Radio (Russian: экспертного совета Национального исследовательского центра (НИЦ) телевидения и радио (телерадио))
- ^ National Telecommunications (NTC) (Russian: Национальных телекоммуникаций (НТК))
- ^ On 9 December 2013, Vladimir Putin abolished RIA Novosti and merged it with the Voice of Russia to create Rossiya Segodnya.[17]
- ^ Purchased in August 2011 by the British Virgin Islands incorporated Dastel Corporation, which Mikhail Lesin is the sole owner.[33][34][35][36][37]
- ^ Purchased in 2012 by the British Virgin Islands incorporated Dastel Corporation, of which Mikhail Lesin was the sole owner.[33][34][35]
- ^ Purchased by HFC Management, of which Mikhail Lesin's daughter, Catherine Lesin, is an employee.[35]
- ^ Purchased in 2009 by Java Drive Inc. and where Mikhail Lesin's son, Anton Lessine resided.[33][34][35][36][37]
- ^ Purchased 17 November 2015, by Mikhail Lesin's son, Anton Lessine.[38]
- ^ Almost immediately after Lesin's death, the FBI returned Lesin's passport to his wife Valentina Ivanova who resides in Los Angeles. She confirmed that the passport was Mikhail Yuriyevich Lesin.[44]
- ^ Several sources immediately reported that Lesin had died of a heart attack. RT reported the next day that the cause of death was a heart attack.[41][48][49] In a USA Today article, relatives said he suffered from a disease and died because of the heart attack.[50]
- ^ "Президент высоко ценит огромный вклад, который внес Михаил Лесин в становление современных российских средств массовой информации."
- Rospechat attended the cremation and viewed the opened casket of Lesin and confirmed that it was Lesin before the cremation ceremony.[59]
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