Mikhail Lesin was found dead on November 5 at the Dupont Circle Hotel, formerly known as the Jurys Washington Hotel. (Photo by Josh)

D.C. police and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia have ended their investigation into one of the more mysterious and suspicious deaths in D.C. in recent memory, concluding that a Russian businessman and former adviser to Vladimir Putin died of an accident.

After nearly a year, D.C.’s chief medical advisory changed Mikhail Lesin’s manner of death from “undetermined” to an “accident,” saying that his injuries were complicated by alcohol poisoning. From the U.S. Attorney’s office:

“After review of the video footage and new evidence developed from the investigation, the Chief Medical Examiner has determined that Mr. Lesin died as a result of blunt force injuries to his head, with contributing causes being blunt force injuries of the neck, torso, upper extremities, and lower extremities, which were induced by falls, with acute ethanol intoxication.”

The chief medical examiner concluded that he sustained the injuries “after days of excessive consumption of alcohol.”

The 57-year-old’s death at the Dupont Circle Hotel last November caused a stir. Russian state media report that he died of a heart attack, but a coroner’s report months later indicated Lesin died of blunt force trauma to the head. It prompted a series of questions, including in a Washington Post editorial that highlighted the deaths of other high-profile Russians who fell out of favor with Putin.

Lesin served as press minister between 1999 and 2004 and founded the Kremlin-backed Russia Today. He became head of Gazprom Media in 2013 and unexpectedly quit two years later. By last year, Lesin was traveling frequently to the U.S. and seemed to be setting up a life in exile. “He finished his business in Russia, if you will, and was looking for another life,” a former Russian government official who also moved told the New York Times.

He was known to be a heavy drinker and hotel footage showed his return the night prior to his death in a disheveled state. Theories have abounded about an attack or other crime; others even more conspiratorially suggested that Lesin wasn’t dead at all, but in a witness protection program. Whether or not it will lay those theories firmly to rest, the investigation is now closed.