Putin Associate Found Dead in DC Hotel
Source: ABC News
prominent Russian millionaire with high-level ties to the Kremlin has been found dead inside a Washington hotel, a Russian official and a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
Mikhail Lesin, the former head of media affairs for the Russian government who's been accused of curtailing the country’s press freedoms, had been staying at Hotel Dupont when he was found Thursday, according to officials.
It's unclear why the long-time adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Washington, but the Metropolitan Police Department is now investigating his death. On Thursday, U.S. authorities notified the Russian embassy in Washington that one of its citizens had died, and Russian officials are now working with American authorities to determine the circumstances of the death, the embassy told ABC News in a statement.
snip
Lesin is credited with creating Russia Today, the English-language news network backed by the Russian government. Now known as RT, the network “provides an alternative perspective on major global events, and acquaints an international audience with the Russian viewpoint,” according to its website.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/ABCNews/putin-associate-found-dead-dc-hotel/story?id=35024556
= new reply since forum marked as read
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/07/us-people-mikhaillesin-idUSKCN0SW02E20151107
Russia Today (RT) quoted family members as saying Lesin died of a heart attack on Wednesday.
RT quoted TASS as saying police had found no signs of foul play but that a formal investigation into his death had been launched.
A representative for Washington police was not immediately available to comment.
ABC said Lesin, who was Russia's Minister of Press from 1999 to 2004, has been accused of censoring Russia's independent media. He became head of Gazprom-Media Holding in 2013 but resigned the following year.
Putin's puppet Medvedev fired him in 2009....
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/kremlin-media-adviser-lesin-sacked/389992.html
The Kremlin announced the departure of Lesin — who founded Video International, the country’s main television advertising company, in 1990, and later held senior posts in news, television and the government — on Tuesday in a terse statement, saying Lesin left “at his own request.”
“At the present, I’m bound by certain obligations, according to which I cannot comment on the reasons for my resignation,” Lesin told Interfax on Wednesday evening. “And I don’t have the moral right to break those obligations.”
But Interfax, citing a Kremlin source, reported that Lesin was sacked for using “his position to resolve questions not related to his official duties.” He said Lesin, 51, had breached discipline and rules on state service.
Newspapers also ran stories Thursday that said Lesin, who looked after media, information technology and intellectual property issues in the Kremlin administration, was fired for conflicts of interest with his own businesses. Kommersant reported that he could have been a driving force in the National Media Group’s creation of NMG-TV, a holding containing St. Petersburg’s Channel 5 and Ren-TV.
A Kremlin spokesman refused to comment on the reports. Kommersant said such harsh comments have rarely been made by senior Kremlin officials without the president’s permission.
It adds some context.
Thanks Madem.
As always 
BTW just noticed that tattoo some gangsta code eh?
Peace!
JM
to the extent that many of their English speaking correspondents objected to the propagandizing. And Putin's regime is anti-gay....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)
RT is a brand of "TV-Novosti", an "autonomous non-profit organization", founded by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti on April 6, 2005.[1][6] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian Government headed by Vladimir Putin included ANO "TV-Novosti" in the list of core organisations of strategic importance of Russia.[7][8][9]
RT has been called a propaganda outlet for the Russian government[10][11][12] and its foreign policy[10][11][13][14] by former Russian officials[15] and by news reporters,[16] including former RT reporters.[17][18][19] It has also been accused of spreading disinformation.[20][21][22] The United Kingdom media regulator Ofcom has threatened RT with sanctions because of repeated violations of its rules on impartiality.[23] The network states that it offers a "Russian perspective" on global events.[24]
This is a couple of years old but it relates to the question you asked--there are video examples at the link:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/08/21/2505051/5-ways-russia-today-anti-gay/
5 Ways ‘Russia Today’ Attempts To Justify The Country’s Law Banning ‘Gay Propaganda’
Reporter James Kirchick, a supposed “leading voice on gay politics,” was kicked off Russia Today Wednesday after using his time to condemn both Russia’s law banning “gay propaganda” and the television network for not properly reporting on it. The other panelists countered that the network has discussed the law, which is true, but much of the coverage has been used to justify it. Here are five tactics the network has used to defend the “gay propaganda” law:
Russia’s Anti-Gay Laws Aren’t As Bad As Other Countries’
One of the deflections Russia Today‘s (RT) contributors often point out is that many other countries have extreme laws criminalizing homosexuality, whereas Russia’s law does not technically make it a crime to be gay. Of course, most of those other countries are small commonwealth states, not world powers hosting international events.
Another comparison is to Section 28, which was a law in the United Kingdom until 2003 banning local governments and schools from promoting homosexuality. In this clip, Ben Harris-Quinney tells viewers that Section 28 was “almost exactly the same” as Russia’s law....
The Law Simply Protects Minors
RT likes to emphasize that the law is designed to protect minors, as if that intention alone makes it okay. Consider this clip from earlier this month, in which the reporter says, “The LGBT Community in the West is furious with the passing of a new Russian law banning gay propaganda to minors, a detail almost never mentioned”.....
I will remember that next time someone attacks the messenger and not the issues. As we say Arigato (thank you).
The dead person was not a Putin critic (at least publicly). However, many gangsters who were not critics of their bosses ended up with piano wire around their necks or bullets in their brains. Also, judging a news organization's credibility based upon the founder, and not the organization's actual publications, is not intelligent.
You seem to have an illogical thought process.
You're welcome.
And now RT is state-owned.
And the latest? The Russians think the guy is in a witness protection program, and not dead at all....!
Key aide: Mikhail Lesin (right, with Putin), who was Putin's press secretary during his first stint as president, founded state television network Russia Today, regarded in the West as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin
Longstanding association: Mikhail Lesin had known Vladimir Putin before the Russian strongman took control of the Kremlin and was nicknamed 'the Bulldozer' for getting the media to dance to Putin's tune
Comrades: Mikhail Lesin was Putin's press minister from 1999 to 2004, then his press adviser from 2004 to 2009, when he created Russia Today
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3315994/Vladimir-Putin-s-media-mastermind-dead-DC-hotel-murdered-FBI-informant-alive-claim-Russians.html#ixzz3rQDf1D3z
