Mikhail Yuryevich Lessin

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Mikhail Lessin (left) with Vladimir Putin, 2002

Mikhail Jurjewitsch Lessin ( Russian Михаил Юрьевич Лесин ; born July 11, 1958 in Moscow , † November 5, 2015 in Washington, DC ) was a Russian politician and media manager. Among other things, he was Minister of the Russian Federation from 1999 to 2004 and media advisor to Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev from 2004 to 2009 .

Life

Lessin graduated from Lomonosov State University with a degree in civil engineering. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the privatization of the media in the early 1990s, he founded the PR and media agency “Video International”, which developed into the largest in Russia and brokered 80 percent of all commercials in the country.

On July 6, 1999, shortly before the end of his term of office, Boris Yeltsin appointed Lessin as Minister of Press, Tele-Broadcasting and Mass Communication in Sergei Stepashin's cabinet .

In the NZZ one could read towards the end of his term of office in January 2004; "Lessin (...) has already inscribed himself in the annals of Russian censorship as the executor of the free press." In the course of a government reshuffle on the occasion of the imminent re-election of Vladimir Putin as president, after Mikhail Fradkov took office as prime minister, both the Ministry of Networking and Informatization under Leonid Reiman and Lessin's ministry were dissolved on March 9, 2004. Mikhail Seslavinski was appointed head of the department now called the Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation , and Leonid Reiman was entrusted with the Ministry of Information Technology and Communication . Lessin moved to the Russian presidential administration , where he was advisor to the Russian president for the media department for the next five years until 2009.

When the government founded the foreign television broadcaster Russia Today (RT) in 2005 to improve Russia's image worldwide, Lessin played a key role in its development; Together with the then presidential press spokesman Alexei Alexejewitsch Gromow , he coordinated the establishment of the English-language foreign television broadcaster for viewers in America, Europe and Asia.

In 2013 he became CEO of the largest Russian media group Gazprom-Media , the media holding of the gas company Gazprom . At the beginning of 2015 Lessin gave up the post again, citing family reasons.

In the summer of 2014, at the height of the Crimean crisis , the Republican US Senator Roger Wicker demanded that Lessin be investigated on suspicion of money laundering and corruption . Lessin owns millions of US dollars in Europe and the United States , including 26 million euros in real estate in Los Angeles , which, according to Wicker, raises questions. Lessin explained at the time that it was not about his property, but that of his children. In the Russian edition of Forbes , Lessin told the allegations that he was used to the fact that many did not like him, but that it was morally reprehensible to attack his family.

death

On November 5, 2015, Lessin was found dead at the age of 57 on one of the upper floors of the luxury hotel The Dupont Circle on the square of the same name in Washington, DC .

While the local criminal police were already investigating the body, Russian media first reported on Lessin's death. They named a heart attack as the cause of death and November 4th as the death date. Later on, Lessin's family members were given as the source of the information.

In March 2016, a report by the Washington forensic medicine became known, which stated that Lessin had died of the effects of "blunt violence" on the head. Injuries can also be found on the neck, upper body, arms and legs.

After a year-long investigation, the US authorities classified Lessin's death as an accident caused by excessive alcohol consumption. In the official FBI final report, which contained many blackened passages, the injuries to the head were not mentioned. In March 2018, BuzzFeed published new details about Lessin's death for the first time. Inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act gave BuzzFeed access to non-public information. Accordingly, Lessin died the evening before his appointment at the United States Department of Justice , where he was to be interviewed about the work of Russia Today . It was also revealed that a grand jury was considering the case in 2016 and that the FBI had received a second report from British intelligence officer Christopher Steele . According to the Steele report, Lessin was attacked on behalf of an oligarch friend of President Putin . The FBI has received reports from three other people, including a business partner Lessin, who named the same oligarch as their client independently of Steele. A fourth person, who also had business ties with Lessin, told BuzzFeed that Lessin had fallen out with the oligarch, but was unable to comment on the oligarch's possible involvement in Lessin's death.

family

Lessin had a daughter, Catherine, from his first marriage, and a son, Anton, from his second marriage. Catherine led the RT offices in the United States. Anton studied at a Swiss university and at the New York Film Academy Los Angeles and invested in films in Hollywood. He was u. a. Co-producer of Sabotage with Arnold Schwarzenegger , Suddenly Gigolo with Woody Allen and Heart of Steel with Brad Pitt . Mikhail Lessin had five grandchildren at the time of his death.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wladimir Simonow: Russia is the number one advertising market today. In: Sputnik . May 24, 2005, accessed November 8, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Minutes of Vanities , NZZ, January 11, 2004
  3. ↑ Министр информационных технологий и связи РФ ( Memento of October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). On minsvyaz.ru on October 9, 2007 (via Wayback Machine ) (Russian)
  4. ↑ Dmitry Medvedev signed an order releasing Mikhail Lesin from his duties as presidential adviser at his request . On November 17, 2009 at en.kremlin.ru (English)
  5. ↑ The new TV face Russia - Russia Today. In: Russia News. June 9, 2005, accessed November 8, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Xenija Maximowa: Snow-free Russia. In: The daily newspaper . June 14, 2005, accessed November 8, 2015 .
  7. ^ A b Annette Langer: Putin adviser found dead in hotel room. In: Spiegel Online . November 7, 2015, accessed November 8, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Посольство России в США: Михаил Лесин скончался в Вашингтоне. In: Kommersant , November 7, 2015.
  9. ↑ Peter Hermann, Abigail House Lohner, Will Englund, Kathy Lally: Former Putin aide found dead in Dupont Circle hotel . November 6, 2015 on washingtonpost.com (English)
  10. ↑ Chris Johnston, Alan Yuhas: Police investigate after Putin ally Mikhail Lesin found dead in Washington hotel . On November 7, 2015 on theguardian.com (English)
  11. ↑ Why did Mikhail Lessin die? In: Zeit Online , March 12, 2016.
  12. ^ Zeit Online, October 29, 2016
  13. ↑ https://vault.fbi.gov/mikhail-lesin/Mikhail%20Lesin%20Part%2001%20of%2001/view
  14. ↑ Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier, Heidi Blake, Tom Warren, Jane Bradley and Richard Holmes: Christopher Steele's Other Report: A Murder In Washington . In: BuzzFeed News , March 27, 2018.
  15. ↑ Возвращение тяжеловеса: как Михаил Лесин управляет медиарынком , Forbes.ru
  16. ↑ Walker Hunter: How Putin's Media Czar May Have Funded Brad Pitt's New Movie . In: Business Insider . August 21, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  17. ↑ Anton Lessine . In: IMDb . Retrieved November 8, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Lessin, Mikhail Jurjewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Лесин, Михаил Юрьевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian politician and media manager
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH 5th November 2015
Place of death Washington, DC