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1 posted on 01/29/2017 9:53:30 PM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Yatsenyuk is a nasty piece of work. I think he’s gone now.


2 posted on 01/29/2017 10:02:01 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: BenLurkin

This is to Ukraine’s advantage, yes? Increased cooperation?


3 posted on 01/30/2017 2:19:57 AM PST by Ciexyz (Happy days are here again, with Trump/Pence!)
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To: BenLurkin
Here’s a brief excerpt of an article on what Russia Today (RT) had to say about him back in April 2016...

After that, I’ll post some info on what Russia Today is. Hint, its founder was found dead inside a Wash DC hotel room in Nov 2015. He had had a falling out with Putin a year or so earlier. Russia Today reported that there were no signs of foul play. That he had died of a heart attack. Four months later, an autopsy report showed he actually died of blunt force trauma to the head, neck and torso.
____________________________

RUSSIA TODAY

Bye-bye Arseny! Things Yatsenyuk will be remembered for during his time as Ukraine’s PM

15 Apr, 2016

Having once again asked the Ukrainian Parliament to accept his resignation, now ex-prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk left Rada waving his hand to a standing ovation. RT takes a look at some of his career lowlights. ...

https://www.rt.com/news/339665-ukraine-yatsenyuk-minister-scandals/

8 posted on 01/30/2017 4:09:12 AM PST by ETL (On the road to America's recovery!)
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To: BenLurkin
Whether Putin had him murdered or not is actually besides the point. Check out how the media works in Russia (today). Russia, under KGB/FSB Putin, is becoming more and more like the evil empire that was the Soviet Union everyday.

________________________________

MIKHAIL-LESIN-DIES

Mikhail Yuriyevich Lesin (July 11, 1958 – November 5, 2015) was a Russian political figure, media executive and an adviser to president Vladimir Putin.[1]

In 2006 he was awarded the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", one of Russia's highest state decoration for civilians.

Mikhail Lesin was nicknamed the Bulldozer because of his ability to get virtually all Russian media outlets under The Kremlin's control.[2]--wikipedia
___________________________________

"RT [Russia Today] 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 network states that it offers a 'Russian perspective' on global events.[24]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_%28TV_network%29
______________________________________

RT = RUSSIA TODAY

Nov 2015...

The recent return of Vladimir Putin's longtime eminence grise, Vladislav Surkov, to the Kremlin was widely discussed in the media. Much less noticed was the appointment of Mikhail Lesin, Putin's former information minister, as the new head of Gazprom-Media, Russia's largest, and de facto state-run, media group, which incorporates several broadcast, print, and online outlets.

Lesin's return to a senior position is no less symbolic than that of Surkov, and says a lot about the Kremlin's plans for Russia's few remaining uncensored media.

Lesin was a central figure in the early Putin years, spearheading the Kremlin's effort to silence the country's independent television, the first step in the consolidation of authoritarian rule.

The first target was NTV, at that time Russia's largest and most popular independent TV channel, whose hard-hitting news broadcasts, talk shows, and satirical programs criticized the government over growing corruption and the war in Chechnya and gave airtime to the opposition.

In June 2000, a month after Putin's inauguration, NTV's founder and majority shareholder, Vladimir Gusinsky, was arrested and placed in Moscow's infamous Butyrka prison.

While he was there, the information minister made an offer: Gusinsky could have his freedom if he agreed to transfer his media holdings to Gazprom, the state-owned energy monopoly.

On July 20, 2000, while still under a prosecutorial recognizance, Gusinsky signed a deal to sell his media outlets to Gazprom that included "Annex 6," which provided for the "termination of the criminal prosecution against Mr Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinskiy in connection with the criminal case initiated against him on 13 June 2000, his reclassification as a witness in the said case and suspension of the precautionary measure prohibiting him from leaving [the country]." "Annex 6" was personally signed by Information Minister Mikhail Lesin.

In its 2004 ruling, the European Court of Human Rights found the NTV owner's arrest to have been politically motivated and in violation of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, emphasizing in particular that "the facts that Gazprom asked the applicant to sign the July agreement when he was in prison, that a State minister [Lesin] endorsed such an agreement with his signature, and that a State investigating officer later implemented that agreement by dropping the charges strongly suggest that the applicant's prosecution was used to intimidate him."

In the end, Gusinsky refused to give up NTV (once out of Russia, he annulled the deal as having been signed under duress). The offices of Russia's largest independent television channel were forcibly taken over by Gazprom-installed security guards in the early hours of April 14, 2001. TV6, a smaller independent channel that sheltered former NTV journalists, was shut down by the authorities in January 2002. The journalists found another short-lived home in TVS, Russia's last nationwide independent television channel, which was taken off the air in June 2003. By this time, the regime no longer cared for appearances and saw no need to hide behind "legal" decisions of obedient courts: the TVS signal was switched off by a direct order of Information Minister Mikhail Lesin, who cited 'viewers' interests" as the reason for the decision.

After this state campaign against major media outlets, Lesin left the spotlight, only occasionally surfacing in the news, for instance, when he co-founded RT [Russia Today], the Kremlin's English-language propaganda mouthpiece.

His return as the new director general of Gazprom-Media could signal another attack on media pluralism in Russia. A likely target could be Ekho Moskvy radio, which, unlike other Gazprom-Media outlets (including the present pro-Kremlin NTV), continues to maintain an independent editorial line and invite opposition leaders to its studios. Many in the Russian media community took Lesin's appointment as a grim sign.

Interestingly, Lesin may become one of the first senior Putin regime officials to face consequences for his involvement in human rights abuses. Earlier this year, civil society groups reportedly proposed Lesin's name for inclusion in the US blacklist under the Magnitsky Act, which provides for visa bans and asset freezes for Russian officials involved in human rights violations.

The next update of the US list may come in December. Meanwhile, sources in the European Parliament indicate that Lesin may be placed on a European Union visa blacklist. This would come as bad news to Putin's media enforcer: according to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Lesin owns a 2 million, euro estate in Finland's Turku Archipelago, purchased through a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. This would indeed be a timely and appropriate message, that helping a dictatorship to muzzle the free media and enjoying the comfort of the Western world are no longer compatible.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/vladimir-kara-murza/ominous-return-putins-media-enforcer
_______________________________________________________

UPDATE: MAR 2016...

Mikhail Lesin, Ex-Putin Aide, Died of Blunt Force Trauma in Washington: Autopsy

by Alastair Jamieson and Alexey Eremenko
Mar 11 2016

A former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin found dead in a Washington hotel room was killed by a blunt force trauma to the head, U.S. authorities said Thursday.

Mikhail Lesin, 57, was found dead on the floor of his room in Dupont Circle on November 5.[2015]

Autopsy results show that he died from “blunt-force injuries of the head,” according to a joint statement Thursday from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported by NBC Washington , but the exact manner of death was undetermined.

Also contributing to his death were “blunt-force injuries of the neck, torso, upper extremities and lower extremities,” the statement said.

Russian media originally reported that Lesin, a former government minister, had suffered a heart attack. ...”

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mikhail-lesin-ex-putin-aide-died-blunt-force-trauma-washington-n536456

______________________________________________________________

"On Friday, November 6 [2015], RIA Novosti reported that Lesin died of a heart attack citing a spokesman for the family as saying: "Today, Mikhail Lesin died ... His death came supposedly from a heart attack."[35][38]

RT [Russia Today] reported the next day that the cause of death was a heart attack.[31][39][40][41]

https://web.archive.org/web/20161026095000/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Lesin

______________________________________________________________

"When he [Mikhail Lesin] quit Gazprom Media in December [2014], a move seen as a shock, he cited ‘family reasons’ although there were unconfirmed claims he had fallen out with other influential figures close to Putin. ..."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3315994/Vladimir-Putin-s-media-mastermind-dead-DC-hotel-murdered-FBI-informant-alive-claim-Russians.html
______________________________________________________

From 2014...

"Mikhail Lesin has stepped down as head of major state-controlled media holding Gazprom-Media, the company said late last week [Dec 2014].

Gazprom-Media, whose holdings include independent radio station Ekho Moskvy, said Lesin's resignation was due to family reasons, Russian media reports said Friday.

The holding's board of directors will finalize his resignation at an upcoming meeting, Gazprom-Media was cited by Ekho Moskvy as saying. No replacement has been named.

Earlier, a flurry of reports of Lesin's imminent resignation appeared on Russian news wires, all based on undisclosed sources and giving divergent accounts of the motive.

Forbes Russia cited sources in the media and government as confirming the resignation, with one of the individuals claiming that the decision was made personally by President Vladimir Putin."

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/513690.html
______________________________________________________

" [RT (Russia Today) founder, Mikhail] Lesin was a central figure in the early Putin years, spearheading the Kremlin's effort to silence the country's independent television, the first step in the consolidation of authoritarian rule.

The first target was NTV, at that time Russia's largest and most popular independent TV channel, whose hard-hitting news broadcasts, talk shows, and satirical programs criticized the government over growing corruption and the war in Chechnya and gave airtime to the opposition.

In June 2000, a month after Putin's inauguration, NTV's founder and majority shareholder, Vladimir Gusinsky, was arrested and placed in Moscow's infamous Butyrka prison.

While he was there, the information minister made an offer: Gusinsky could have his freedom if he agreed to transfer his media holdings to Gazprom, the state-owned energy monopoly. ..."

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/vladimir-kara-murza/ominous-return-putins-media-enforcer

9 posted on 01/30/2017 4:17:39 AM PST by ETL (On the road to America's recovery!)
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