When a Russian eminence grise dies – committing suicide, or due to natural causes or a bit of polonium in the tea – every conjecture is possible. And the billionaire king of Putin’s propaganda is no exception. Who was Lesin and why his death does not end in a Washington hotel room?
It could not be avoided. As soon as the news of the discovery of Mikhail Lesin lifeless body has spread, everyone thought of the long arm of the Russian secret services. The speculation about who killed him have flourished on sites and blogs, while the most influential newspapers mostly limited to leave open a question. The only ones with certainties were, as always, the Kremlin controlled Russian media. RT headlined “Lesin dies from heart attack at 57“, and so did everyone else. How they got to know the cause of death before the autopsy, I do not know.
Lesin was not a small fish. He was Minister of the Press under Yeltsin and Putin and, until a few months ago, he headed Gazprom-Media, the holding company that controls the information in Russia.
Someone says he was behind the resistible rise of Vladimir to the presidency of the Federation, after Yeltsin. True or not, Lesin played a very important role in the creation of the war machine of Russian propaganda. The Orwellian giant that makes the majority of Russians believe there are Nazis in Kiev and that the Americans may have shot down the Metrojet A321, is largely his creature.
He was behind the birth of RT, the flagship of Russian disinformatsija in English. And he was always behind the clampdown on some media not aligned with the Kremlin, like the television channel NTV and the radio Echo Moskvy, jailing its owner when he was minister. In December 2014, however, he suddenly resigned from Gazprom-Media. He said it was due to family reasons, but according to Forbes Russia he was fired directly by Putin.
Hollywood
Although he had known in the US as an anti-liberal, he had escaped the Magnitsky list of persona non grata, and wasn’t touched by the sanctions on individuals for the war in Ukraine, that hit many people around him.
Indeed, he had recently moved with his whole family to California, where he loved to go shopping mansions worth $ 28 million. The passion for the media had not passed. From his home in Beverly Hills, through Qed International, he produced Hollywood movies like Fury, starring Brad Pitt, Sabotage, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dirty Grandpa, with Robert De Niro.
Its activities had attracted the attention of Senator Robert Winker, who wrote to the Department of Justice asking for investigating for international corruption and money laundering.
In short, Lesin was a powerful man with powerful friends and a bunch of enemies. Honestly a bit little to have a reasonable doubt that it was murder.
The deaths outside the walls of the Kremlin have accustomed us to a mafia-style intimidating language. Lessons, messages and warnings. A method which, if always hiding in the shadows perpetrators and instigators, leaves no doubt about the murderous will. That’s what happened to Anna Politkovskaya and Boris Nemtsov, Aleksandr Litvinenko and Natalia Estemirova. The list is long.
There are (still) valid reasons to believe that no one would desire the death of Lesin. The scene in the hotel room is actually that of a natural death. It is not known what it was going to do in Washington, if he was there to meet someone. Nor if the investigations about him already discovered something. On the other hand, it is remarkable the hasty dismissal of the case as a heart attack by the Russian press.
In any case, a mystery indeed.
@daniloeliatweet
When a Russian eminence grise dies – committing suicide, or due to natural causes or a bit of polonium in the tea – every conjecture is possible. And the billionaire king of Putin’s propaganda is no exception. Who was Lesin and why his death does not end in a Washington hotel room?
It could not be avoided. As soon as the news of the discovery of Mikhail Lesin lifeless body has spread, everyone thought of the long arm of the Russian secret services. The speculation about who killed him have flourished on sites and blogs, while the most influential newspapers mostly limited to leave open a question. The only ones with certainties were, as always, the Kremlin controlled Russian media. RT headlined “Lesin dies from heart attack at 57“, and so did everyone else. How they got to know the cause of death before the autopsy, I do not know.
