Denis Voronenkov was a Russian politician who was a member of the Soviet Army. He left the military in 1999 to begin a political career and joined the Communist Party (he was expelled in 2016) and was elected to State Dudma in 2011. In 2016 election he lost to candidate Vladimir Panov and renounced his Russian citizenship and immigrated to Ukraine with his wife, Maria Maksakova Jr.
Voronenkov was an open critic of Russian leader, Vladimir Putin and Russian intervention in the Ukraine. He compared Russia under Vladimir Putin to Nazi Germany.
The Federal Security Service of Russia persecuted him for being involved in drug trafficking and for illegal property seizure. In 2017, a Russian court had sanctioned his arrest in absentia; Voronenkov dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and accused them of bribery.
Voronenkov, 45, was shot dead in Kyiv, Ukraine on 23 March 2017 whilst leaving the Premier Palace hotel. He had been shot three times by Pavlo Parshov, 28, and died instantly. He was on his way to meet Ilya Ponomarev, a former MP living in exile in Ukraine. Voronenkov’s bodyguard was wounded during the incident but survived. His assassination was caught on CCTV.
His death is believed to have been a contract killing arranged by a FSB (security service of Russia) officer. Perpetrator, Parshov was wounded by Voronenkovs bodyguard and died of his wounds in hospital. The gunman owned a Ukrainian passport and was known to police for being a fraud and for money laundering charges. It was alleged that Parshov, 28, was planted by Russian services. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko called it an act of Russian ‘state terrorism’; Putin’s spokesman denied any involvement in the crime.
A month before his murder, Voronenkov said he feared for his own security as well as his families.
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