Ruling revives questions about DC death of ex-Putin aide

WASHINGTON (AP) — On a foggy November morning in 2015, a heavily intoxicated man showed up before dawn at the Dupont Circle Hotel, forked over $1,200 cash for a ninth-floor penthouse suite and kept drinking. His bender continued all day.

By the next morning, he was dead. Authorities concluded that he died of blunt force trauma, the result of repeatedly falling in his room and suffering at least one serious head wound.

Normally, such a case would be quickly forgotten. But Mikhail Lesin, 57, was no ordinary tourist on a drinking binge. He was one of Vladimir Putin's top lieutenants during Putin's rise to power in Russia. Speculation he was murdered has continued to this day.

Now a recent court ruling could shed light on the case.

On Feb.