The author of the famous Trump dossier provided a secret report to the FBI asserting that RT founder Mikhail Lesin was bludgeoned to death by thugs hired by an oligarch close to Putin. Three other sources independently told the FBI the same basic story, contradicting the government’s finding that Lesin’s death was accidental.
Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier, Heidi Blake, Tom Warren, Jane Bradley, Alex Campbell, and Richard Holmes at BuzzFeed News:
The FBI possesses a secret report asserting that Vladimir Putin’s former media czar was beaten to death by hired thugs in Washington, DC — directly contradicting the US government’s official finding that Mikhail Lesin died by accident.
The report, according to four sources who have read all or parts of it, was written by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who also wrote the famous dossier alleging that Russia had been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Donald Trump. The bureau received his report while it was helping the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department investigate the Russian media baron’s death, the sources said.
FBI spokesperson Andrew Ames declined to confirm or deny the existence of the report and would not comment for this story. Steele's business partner, Chris Burrows, declined to comment on behalf of Steele and their company, Orbis Business Intelligence.
Steele’s report — the existence of which has never before been made public — adds to a mounting body of evidence that casts doubt on the official finding on Lesin’s death.
The new revelations come as concerns about Russia’s meddling in the West have intensified to a pitch not seen since the Cold War. Both the UK and the US have blamed the Kremlin for poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England this month, using a rare nerve agent that endangered bystanders. (Russia has denied it was behind the poisoning.) In the wake of that attack, the British government has opened a review of all 14 suspicious deaths linked to Russia that a BuzzFeed News investigation exposed last year.
The BuzzFeed News series also revealed new details about Lesin — including that he died on the eve of a scheduled meeting with US Justice Department officials. They had planned to interview Lesin about the inner workings of RT, the Kremlin-funded network that he founded.
Now BuzzFeed News has established:
Steele’s report says that Lesin was bludgeoned to death by enforcers working for an oligarch close to Putin, the four sources said.
The thugs had been instructed to beat Lesin, not kill him, but they went too far, the sources said Steele wrote.
Three of the sources said that the report described the killers as Russian state security agents moonlighting for the oligarch.
The Steele report is not the FBI's only source for this account of Lesin's death: Three other people, acting independently from Steele, said they also told the FBI that Lesin had been bludgeoned to death by enforcers working for the same oligarch named by Steele.
Lesin’s corpse was found in a Washington, DC, hotel room on the morning of Nov. 5, 2015. The coroner determined that he had died from blunt force injuries to the head and had also sustained blunt force injuries to his neck, torso, upper extremities, and lower extremities. After an 11-month investigation, a federal prosecutor announced in late 2016 that Lesin died alone in his room due to a series of drunken falls “after days of excessive consumption of alcohol.” His death was ruled an “accident,” with the coroner adding acute alcohol intoxication as a contributing cause of death, and prosecutors closed the case.
But Steele’s report — the existence of which has never before been made public — adds to a mounting body of evidence that casts doubt on the official finding on Lesin’s death. “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,” an FBI agent told BuzzFeed News last year. “Everyone thinks he was whacked and that Putin or the Kremlin were behind it.”
In December, DC police released 58 pages of its case file on Lesin’s death. While many parts are blacked out, what was released says nothing about the blunt force injuries that killed Lesin — or even about him falling down, which is how he is supposed to have died.
Now BuzzFeed News has learned that federal prosecutors called witnesses before a grand jury during 2016 to compel them to testify under penalty of perjury about Lesin’s death, and they amassed more than 150 pages of material from the proceedings. The use of a grand jury, not previously reported, was discovered in documents released after BuzzFeed News launched a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to compel the Justice Department, the FBI, and other agencies to turn over records related to the Lesin investigation. That lawsuit is ongoing.
[...]
In 2005, he founded Russia Today, which he once described as a news channel to counter Western perspectives put out by the likes of CNN and the BBC. Later renamed RT, the state-funded media channel broadcasts in the US on cable and via the internet. Lesin also served as a presidential adviser.
November 5, 2015
LESIN
Mikhail Yuriyevich Lesin was a Russian political figure, media executive and an adviser to president Vladimir Putin. He was nicknamed the Bulldozer because of his ability to get virtually all Russian media outlets under The Kremlin's control. He was found dead before noon on November 5, 2015 in The Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington with no gunshot wounds. He was found without any identification in a hotel room that was in his name. The original police report indicated an unknown victim in the room which was booked in his name. After much time a member from the Russian Embassy in Washington confirmed the identity of the individual as Mikhail Yuriyevich Lesin. 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. On March 10, 2016 Mashable stated that they had been informed 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". On October 28, 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. The investigation found Lesin had been on a days-long alcohol bender saying "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".
ABD’nin başkenti Washington’da kaldığı bir otelde geçen sene ölü bulunan Rusya Devlet Başkanı Vladimir Putin’in eski medya danışmanı Mikhail Lesin’in, aşırı içki tüketiminin de etkisiyle “kaza” sonucu öldüğü bildirildi. ABD Yargı Bakanlığından yapılan yazılmış açıklamada, soruşturmanın tamamlandı...
Russian officials: Requests about ex-Putin aide's death unanswered
World
Russian officials: Requests about ex-Putin aide's death unanswered
Russian officials said Friday that they want more information from the U.S. about the mysterious death of a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was found in an upscale Washington hotel room last fall. Autopsy results released Thursday said Mikhail Lesin, Putin's former press minister who helped found the English-language news service Russia Today, died of blunt force trauma to the head and other parts of his body, but authorities have not said how he got the injuries. The 57-year-old was discovered in his room at the Dupont Circle Hotel in November. Russian media, citing relatives, previously reported that Lesin suffered a heart attack.
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
On Thursday evening, District of Columbia police and the medical examiner's office said in a joint statement that the cause of Lesin's death was blunt force trauma to the head and contributing causes were blunt force injuries to the neck, torso, arms and legs. The manner of death was undetermined, the statement said. Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the case is "very much an active investigation" and officials would release updates when they are available. He didn't expect any additional details Friday. Lesin, one of Russia's leading media managers, helped stage Putin's ascent to power in 2000 and was a key figure in the Kremlin's effort to establish tight control over the nation's media throughout the 2000s.
Putin's one-time media enforcer killed by 'blunt force trauma to the head'
Americas
Putin's one-time media enforcer killed by 'blunt force trauma to the head'
A former aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin died from blunt force trauma to the head in a Washington hotel room, a post-mortem examination has shown. Media tycoon Mikhail Lesin, whose death in November sparked rumours he was murdered for turning FBI informat, also had injuries to the neck, torso, arms and legs. The 57-year-old's death was 'undetermined" but remains under investigation, according to the District of Columbia's Medical Examiner's Office. Relatives had previously claimed he suffered a heart attack.
There are not enough grounds to speak about murder. He could have been nervous. He may have had health issues. It could have been suicide. But anyway, it smells fishy.
Human rights activist Pavel Chikov
Mr Lesin, nicknamed The Bulldozer, was a media adviser to Mr Putin and helped found the English-language news service Russia Today. His body was found after police were called to his room at the relatively modest Doyle Dupont Circle Hotel after concerns about his welfare. His death has prompted speculation, including that he was about to turn FBI informer and that he owed money to one of Mr Putin's closes business advisers. Just weeks before he died, it was revealed he had fathered a child by glamorous model and flight attendant Victoria Rakhimbayeva, 29.
The U.S. side has not provided us with any substantive information. We are waiting for clarification from Washington and the relevant official details on the progress of the investigation.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
