Reuters
Mikhail Lesin, a former aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, was found dead in a hotel room in DC's Dupont Circle on Thursday, according to local authorities and the Russian Embassy. In addition to his Kremlin ties, Lesin was an ex-executive of Russia's energy behemoth Gazprom and was considered the "inspiration" behind the state-run English-language channel Russia Today (RT). DC police said that, as of Friday night, a cause of death had not been determined; Russian state media claimed Lesin, who was in his late 50's, died of a heart attack. In probably unrelated news, Britain has witnessed a spate of ex-pat Russians dying of mysterious causes, only for autopsies and investigations to later reveal traces of rare poisons or evidence of plutonium-laced tea.