We’ve reported on eight prominent Russians – diplomats, spies, and some people with direct connections to Donald Trump – who have all mysteriously dropped dead since Trump’s Russia scandal became headline news. Did we say eight? Make that nine dead Russians. Former Vladimir Putin aide Mikhail Lesin has died in Washington DC from severe head trauma. And bizarrely, he’s one of two key Russian government figures who died in the United States during the election, both from head trauma.

Mikhail Lesin is the ninth name added our list, but it turns out he may have been the very first body to drop. Although the Washington DC coroner is just now ruling that he died from blunt force trauma to the head, his death took place all the way back on November 5th of 2015. It went under the radar at the time because Russia initially whispered to the media that he’d had a heart attack, and there wasn’t yet any pattern of dead Russians to arouse suspicion.

Nonetheless, Mikhail Lesin died in his DC hotel room from what has now officially been belatedly pronounced as severe head wounds – meaning he was likely in a fight or murdered. He was a former aide to Putin, and he was behind Putin’s push to create state-run media outlets in Russia. NPR has the new coroner’s report on Lesin. But this is creating some confusion tonight, because he’s not the only prominent Russian who died in November from head wounds.

Sergei Krivov was found dead on election day at the Russian consulate in New York, just up the street from where Trump was celebrating his shocking victory. BuzzFeed first reported a month ago that Russia had initially announced Krivov had died of a heart attack, but that the coroner’s report in New York also went on to reveal head trauma (sound familiar?). Krivov, who appears to have been a Russian intel agent, died in the same fashion, with the same attempted Russian coverup.

Krivov was already on our list, but Mikhail Lesin officially makes nine Russians to suspiciously die since the start of the Trump-Russia scandal. While neither of these men is known to have connections to Trump, several of the other dead Russians were directly involved in either the Trump-Russia conspiracy or the effort to expose it. You can read our recap of the first seven dead Russians, as well as our subsequent report on the eighth dead Russian, who was in on the conspiracy and lived in Trump’s building. Contribute to Palmer Report