A former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin was found dead Thursday in a Dupont Circle hotel room in Washington D.C., Russian state media has announced.
Mikhail Lesin, 57, Russia's former press minister and ex-executive of Gazprom-Media, reportedly died from a heart attack, his family told state media, according to The Washington Post.
A police spokesman, on the other hand, said Friday night that authorities have not yet publicly identified the man and that a cause of death had not yet been determined.
District police said Thursday that detectives who investigate apparent natural deaths were handling the case, BBC News reported.
Russia Today, the state-run English language news channel, credited Lesin with "inspiring the creation" of the news agency.
The FBI was considering an investigation last year into the retired media honcho based on several multi-million dollar real estate purchases in California, according to the New York Daily News
It was unclear what Lesin was doing in Washington, but officials fear that his business may have involved people or groups on a U.S. sanctions list.
