Former lawmaker, critic of Putin assassinated in Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine — A former Russian lawmaker who fled to Ukraine last year was gunned down on a sidewalk in Kiev on Thursday morning, the latest in a string of politically hued killings of critics of the Russian government abroad, going back more than a decade.
The killing coincided with a fire and explosion at a gigantic Ukrainian army ammunition depot in the country’s east that authorities blamed on Russia, suggesting an escalation of Russian special operations inside Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, said it was “no accident” that the killing of the lawmaker, Denis Voronenkov, occurred at the same time as the ammunition depot explosion. Ukraine’s military said a drone may have touched off the blast, near the city of Kharkiv, sending tank shells firing in all directions and forcing the evacuation of 20,000 people.
Though Kiev police said it was too early to determine a motive in the killing, Poroshenko blamed the Russian government for “an act of state terrorism.”
Accused of corruption
Voronenkov was a member of the Russian parliament before defecting to Ukraine last year with his wife, Maria Maksakova, a fellow Russian politician and a Bolshoi opera singer, saying they were escaping political prosecution.
In Kiev, the couple had kept a high profile, speaking out frequently against Russian policy in Ukraine. But Russian authorities accused them of corruption and said they had left to avoid prosecution.
In Ukraine, Voronenkov had promised to testify for the prosecution in a criminal case against Ukraine’s former Russia-aligned president, Viktor Yanukovych, and to provide an insider’s information about Russian government deliberations and actions during the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
In his statement, Poroshenko called Voronenkov “one of the main witnesses of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
For a contract murder, a common occurrence in former Soviet countries usually executed with precision, the killing in Kiev was unusually bloody and chaotic.
The brazen daytime shooting occurred just as Voronenkov was walking to an upscale Kiev hotel, Premier Palace. The assassin opened fire with what police said was a TT pistol, a Soviet-era design, and Voronenkov’s bodyguard fired back.
In total, police say, the two fired at least 20 shots a few yards apart, leaving spots of blood and shell casings scattered around the sidewalk. Hours later, the body of Voronenkov, his tan dress shoes still protruding from a black tarpaulin, remained on the spot as police investigated.
Voronenkov was hit four times and died at the scene, according to Yuri Lutsenko, Ukraine’s prosecutor general. The bodyguard was shot in the chest but survived. The assassin was captured after suffering a head wound but later died at a hospital.
‘Demonstrative murder’
Lutsenko said Voronenkov could have been killed to prevent the embarrassing court testimony against Yanukovych, who is being tried in absentia, or because Voronenkov knew details about money-laundering schemes used by the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the KGB.
“This was the demonstrative murder of a witness, common for the Kremlin,” Lutsenko said.
Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, said in an interview that he and Voronenkov had discussed opening a non-government group in Kiev to study Russian corruption. “He knew everything about everybody” in Russia, Gerashchenko said.
Voronenkov had worked as a prosecutor in Russia before joining parliament and socialized with aides close to President Vladimir Putin. Vladislav Surkov, a senior political adviser to Putin, had attended Voronenkov’s wedding.
In Russia, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitri Peskov, denied any Russian involvement. “We consider any accusations of the notorious Russian trace to be absurd,” he said.