There are people who are always in sight, but there are completely different. Few people suspect their existence, and even more so they are not public figures. But at the same time, their impact on the lives of other people is enormous. Mikhail Lesin belongs to such "gray cardinals", whose cause of death is still in doubt among many. This man left a significant mark in the history of Russia.
Childhood of the Cardinal
Lesin Mikhail Yurievich was born on July 11, 1958 in the capital of the Soviet Union. His father was a builder in the military sphere, and his son grew up as a cocky, active, restless boy. At school, he was reprimanded more than once for fighting. There is information that for this reason he was even expelled from the pioneers, and then was not accepted into the Komsomol. The yard comrades called young Lesin the Boatswain.
Youth
Mikhail Lesin graduated from high school in 1975, and he did not succeed in becoming a student right away. Therefore, in 1976, the guy was taken into the army. He had a chance to repay his debt to the Motherland as a marine.
Returning home in 1978, the young man still decides to get a higher education. The choice fell on the Kuibyshev Moscow Civil Engineering Institute. The student body was stormy. Mikhail led an active social life and was even a member of the institute's KVN team. He received his engineering degree in 1984.
Find yourself
Lesin's first positions were connected with the system of the Ministry of Industrial Construction of the Soviet Union. Labor activity took place in Moscow, as well as in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.
After five years of work in the industry, Mikhail Lesin, whose biography began in the family of an engineer, abruptly changed course. He did not succeed in continuing his father's work.
Restructuring was in full swing in the Union. Gorbachev allowed ordinary citizens of the country to open private cooperatives, firms and engage in commercial activities. Private entrepreneurs appeared in the Soviet Union like mushrooms after rain. And Lesin did not stand aside. In 1987, an active and creative young man began organizing commercial concerts, creating together with his comrades the Panopticon studio, where, according to some reports, he served as an administrator. In this area, he lasted one year.
Start of TV era
In 1988, thirty-year-old Mikhail Lesin found what became his life's work - television. And he didn’t even have to start from the bottom. Lesin was immediately appointed deputy director for the production of television programs in the "Game-Technique" association. Here Kaveen's experience was very useful to him - he had to organize the commercial programs of the Club of the cheerful and resourceful.
Later Lesinheaded the TV program "Merry Fellows", and even later (in 1990) - the youth creative production association "Radio and Television" ("RTV"). Under his leadership, various television competitions were organized and held. A year later, RTV turned into an advertising agency with the loud name Video International.
From 1993 to 1996, Mikhail Lesin worked at the television company TV Novosti, where he first held the position of head of the commercial department, then deputy director, and then general director.
In 1994, Mikhail Yurievich officially broke off relations with Video International, refusing the status of a founder. But in fact, his cooperation with the agency continued. It is Lesin who is credited with the authorship of the scripts for well-known commercials advertising Bank Imperial.
Politics
Finding his hand in commercial advertising, Lesin tries his hand at political advertising. His starting point was the parliamentary elections of 1995, during which he created campaign videos for the Our Home is Russia movement.
And in 1996, a novice PR man had a more serious matter - he was fully preparing the election campaign of Boris Yeltsin, who ran for a second presidential term. And within the framework of this project, Lesin Mikhail Yuryevich came up with a lot of "chips" that have become classics. So, for example, it is to him that the famous call “Vote with your heart” belongs. Lesin also advised Yeltsin to address the Russians daily on television. And in the videos “Save and Save” and “I Believelove, hope” is a share of his work.
During the election campaign, Lesin worked closely with Mikhail Chubais and the candidate's daughter, Tatyana Dyachenko. After the successful completion of the race for Yeltsin, the president expressed his gratitude to the talented assistant, and later made him head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Public Relations. So Mikhail Lesin, whose biography could have been quite simple and ordinary, ended up in the Kremlin.
VGTRK
From 1997 to 1999, Lesin was the first deputy chairman of the VGTRK (All-Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company). In a relatively short period of time, he managed to gather almost all the state media into one "fist". Rostelevision, the Kultura channel, Radio Russia and Mayak, RIA Novosti and the Unified Production and Technological Complex created by Mikhail Yuryevich were under the roof of the VGTRK.
Mikhail Lesin - Minister of Press
And in 1999, Lesin went even further - he was entrusted with the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Press, Broadcasting and Mass Media. He began his career in this chair when he was Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, managed to work in the governments of Putin and Kasyanov.
But not only the direct management of the media sphere was handled by Mikhail Lesin in this post. The minister actively participated in the 1999 presidential race and in the 2000 parliamentary elections. Analysts call him a key figure in these two campaigns, who made a verya lot for Putin and the pro-Kremlin force Unity to come to power.
Loud scandals
Having reached the very top of the Russian politicians, Lesin does not forget his offspring Video International. At least, this was stated by some personalities in the media. Mikhail Yuryevich is accused of abuse of power, which he allegedly uses to help the agency. According to informants, it was under the wing of Lesin that the brainchild of Video International captured about seventy percent of the advertising market on Russian television, successfully avoids taxation, hides income, interacts with the criminal world and conducts other illegal activities. And the minister himself controls the agency, owning a blocking stake, although he has no official relation to the company.
One of the communist deputies allegedly submitted a corresponding request to the president with a request to look into the situation and take action. But the head of state did not dismiss his minister. The complaint did not affect Lesin's career in any way. It is possible that these are only rumors spread by ill-wishers.
Advisor to the President
In the spring of 2004, the ministry headed by Lesin was liquidated. Instead, a new structure was created - the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. It was subordinate to the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications.
Analysts predicted Mikhail Yurievich the main post in the new agency, but he did not get it. Mikhail Lesin jumped even higher, becomingAdvisor to the President of the Russian Federation on Media Affairs.
In the summer of the same year, Mikhail Yuryevich first joined the board of directors of Channel One. Later, he was elected to this post more than once.
Last decade
The last decade of Lesin's life was quite rich and contrasting. In 2007, Mikhail Yuryevich was included in the Council under the President of the Russian Federation, which was supposed to prepare for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. In 2008, he, using administrative resources, helped Dmitry Medvedev win the presidential race.
A year later, Lesin fell out of favor. He was fired from his post as presidential adviser. And in 2010, Lesin also left the board of directors of Channel One.
In the same year, information was leaked to the media that Video International was now controlled by Rossiya Bank. And Lesin became a member of the board of directors of National Communications, a controlling stake in which belonged to this bank.
In 2013-2015, Mikhail Yuryevich chaired the board of Gazprom-Media Holding and managed to make many high-profile steps in this post, among which, for example, was the revival of the TEFI award. During this period, the holding also bought several successful TV channels (Friday, TV-3 and some others), four radio stations, a film company and a production company that released The Voronins, The Real Boys and other popular youth and not only series.
Personal life of Mikhail Lesin: family and children
For the first time the hero of this article enteredvery early in marriage - already in 1979, his daughter Catherine was born. Mikhail Lesin, whose wife was also probably very young, was unable to save his family. The couple divorced. In general, little is known about this marriage of a statesman. But it is no secret that he did not remain a bachelor. In 1983, the boy Anton was born. His father was Mikhail Lesin. The wife of Valentina, the mother of her second child, remained his faithful companion almost until the death of the politician and businessman, devoting herself entirely to family and home.
And only in 2014 did the media get information that Lesin's marriage had also broken up. The aging man replaced his second wife with a twenty-eight-year-old model who gave birth to another daughter. But this information is not reflected in the official biographies of the figure.
Journalists with pleasure and ridicule savored the marriage of Mikhail Yurievich to a young beauty. And in the summer of 2014, the former presidential adviser “pleased” the press with another scandal. Financial this time. The case concerned real estate acquired in America. One of the US senators had questions about it to Lesin. The politician asked how the chief of propaganda got twenty-eight million dollars for a mansion in Los Angeles. And this is what Mikhail Lesin answered him: “The children bought this house on credit.”
Ekaterina Lesina actually already lived in the United States of America at that time and was in charge of the American bureau of Russia Today, so the answer was quite similar to the truth.
Death
On November 6, 2015, Mikhail Lesin was found dead in his hotel room in Washington. The cause of his death remained hidden from the general public for a very long time. And even after the official version was made public - a heart attack, people had questions. And in the press now and then contradictory information appears. Either Lesin was beaten on the eve of his death, or he did not die at all, but simply hides from everyone in order to "resurrect" someday.
Many then, in November 2015, were interested in the question of where Mikhail Lesin was buried. The answer seemed strange to most. The politician was cremated, and the ashes rest in the United States of America. He was never brought home.
The significance of Lesin's activities
Mikhail Lesin, whose family was very simple, has achieved a lot in his life. From a production engineer to an adviser to the president, not everyone can reach. Mikhail Yuryevich liked to discuss this moment.
His high position was not a formality. This man was indeed a powerful person. He is credited with the formation of the Russian media market, as well as the definition of state policy in relation to the media. The figure of Lesin is associated with the closure of several independent media and, in general, the infringement of freedom of speech. But about the dead, it’s either good or not at all … The premature death of Mikhail Yuryevich was a real shock for those who loved and respected him. And there were many such people.
