MOSCOW - Alexander Lebed, the governor of the Krasnoyarsk territory and a former presidential candidate, died Sunday from injuries sustained in a helicopter crash, Russian emergency officials said.

Lebed, a former army general, finished third in the 1996 nationwide presidential election. He was elected governor of the Siberian Krasnoyarsk region in 1998.

Lebed, 52, died in a hospital where he was taken after the crash of an Mi-8 helicopter Sunday morning near the town of Abakan after it hit a power line, Russian television reported.

There were 19 people, including a three-member crew, aboard the helicopter when it crashed, the Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow said. Seven, including Lebed, died, and 12 were hospitalized in critical condition, the ministry duty officer said.

Several journalists and the region's deputy governor Nadezhda Kolba were among those killed in the crash of the helicopter which was taking Lebed to the opening of a new high-mountain ski trail, NTV television reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condolences to the families of all those killed in the crash, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

The helicopter crashed outside Abakan, about 3,400 kilometers (2,100 miles) east of Moscow, after it struck an electric power line in conditions of poor visibility, the Interfax news agency said.

Lebed governed the huge Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, and was considered a key regional leader.

In 1995, after a dispute with the Russian defense minister, Lebed was forced to retire from the military after a 25-year career. He turned to politics and was elected to the lower house of parliament, the State Duma. He ran for president in 1996, and came in third, pulling 15 percent of the vote in the election won by the incumbent Boris Yeltsin.

Lebed, while briefly serving as the head of Yeltsin's security council, was credited with brokering an end to Moscow's 1994-96 war in Chechnya.

Sergei Mironov, chairman of parliament's upper house, the Federation Council, said Lebed was known in Russia as an unorthodox politician.

"He was a war general and at the same time, strove to settle the conflicts in problem areas such as Moldova and Chechnya," Mironov said of Lebed who was at one time a member of the council because of his post as regional governor.

A commission to investigate the crash, headed by Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, has been set up, Interfax said.