Russia blamed for MP’s death
UKRAINE’S president has accused the Kremlin of “state terrorism” after a fugitive Russian MP who had denounced the annexation of Crimea was gunned down in Kiev.
Denis Voronenkov, a former member of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house, was shot dead as he set off for a meeting on Thursday morning.
The attacker, who has not been named, was wounded by Voronenkov’s bodyguard and died in hospital shortly afterwards.
President Petro Poroshenko said the killing was “an act of state terrorism on the part of Russia, which [Voronenkov] was forced to leave for political reasons.
Russia immediately denied the accusation, calling it “absurd”.
Voronenkov, 45, was elected to the Duma as an MP for the Russian Communist Party in 2011.
He and his wife Maria Maksakova, an opera singer and MP with the ruling United Russia party, resigned from parliament and moved to Ukraine with their
In interviews in Kiev, Voronenkov said the family had to leave Russia because of persecution by the Russian security services.
He became an outspoken critic of the Kremlin from exile, denouncing the annexation of Crimea. — The Daily Telegraph infant son in October.