NEWSWATCH: “Mikhail Lesin’s Strange Death in U.S. Follows a Fall From Russia’s Elite” – New York Times
It took more than four months for the city’s medical examiner to announce the cause of death … not a heart attack … but rather ‘blunt force injuries.’ But the autopsy left the manner of death undetermined. … fuel[ing] speculation … Lesin might have been murdered, presumably by a financial or political rival …. *** police … continue to treat Mr. Lesin’s as a natural death, though the criminal division is in charge of the investigation. Neither the F.B.I. nor the Justice Department has taken a role in the investigation, according to officials … suggesting that it was being investigated as an untimely death but not a federal crime. … a security video showed … Lesin returning to his hotel in a disheveled state, suggesting he had been in an accident or altercation …. In addition to the blunt trauma to the head, Mr. Lesin’s body had bruises on the neck, torso, arms and legs, but the cause of those was not clear.