Russian media tycoon found dead in Washington

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian media mogul Mikhail Lesin, who helped launch the English-language television network RT, has been found dead at a Washington hotel. He was 57, according to AFP.

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, said the former minister of media affairs died of a heart attack.

"Lesin died. It's impossible to believe this," tweeted Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state funded RT.

Police in Washington said Lesin was found unresponsive early Thursday, November 5 downtown, at a location ABC News identified as the Dupont Circle Hotel.

"A ruling on the cause and manner of death is pending further investigation," a statement added on Saturday.

In a terse statement, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the "president highly values the enormous contribution Mikhail Lesin made helping establish Russian media."

U.S. officials notified the Russian Embassy of Lesin's death and authorities from both countries are trying to determine the circumstances in which he died.

Lesin was Russia's minister of press, television and radio between 1999 and 2004, and later served as a Kremlin aide.

In 2013, he became head of Gazprom-Media Holding, the media arm of state energy giant Gazprom, and oversaw the work of Russia's top liberal radio station Echo of Moscow.

Lesin resigned a year later, citing family reasons.