The second time this year in Kiev triumphed death, the second time she caught people who were looking for asylum in Ukraine, as in Russia, they came into conflict with the regime of President Vladimir Putin. Thursday the scene of drama was the entrance to a luxury hotel Premier Palace: was killed by shots from a pistol of the former Russian Deputy Denis Boronenkov and wounded his bodyguard, then he fell between the Parking “Maybach” and “Mercedes” after the security guard returned fire. He later died in hospital. In July, just a few streets from there killed journalist Pavel Sheremet, who, like Boronenkov, was a critic of the regime in Moscow. His car exploded when he sat down.
For the Ukrainian leadership, which in 2014 is at war against the invading Russian army in the East of the country, the matter quickly became clear: President Petro Poroshenko announced the Russian “state terrorism,” and Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko called at once two Russian versions, was the investigators: first, the murder could be explained by the fact that prior to his flight to the Ukraine Boronenkov uncovered a Russian gang of smugglers under the auspices of President Putin. Second, Boronenkov was supposed to be, according to the General Prosecutor’s main witness at the trial on charges of high treason against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after Pro-Western revolution “euromayday” in February 2014. The trial should begin in the near future in the absence of the accused.
Some of the circumstances of the assassination show that the aspect of “Yanukovych” could play a crucial role. Directly after the attack, another witness in this case stated that Voronenkov was just going to meet him when he suffered death. A former Russian MP Ilya Ponomarev, the only member of the State Duma, who voted in 2014 against Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian Peninsula. Ponomarev also lives in exile in Kiev.
Because Boronenkov already questioned, the Ukrainian authorities have made myself an idea of what he would say at the upcoming trial. In any case, the President Poroshenko wrote that we are talking about the role of Yanukovych at the Russian invasion of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. The newspaper “Kommersant” wrote with reference to the investigators that the evidence Boronenkov confirm the accusation that Yanukovych before his flight he called Russian in the country. The attorney General Lutsenko said that from the testimony of these two witnesses it is clear that Russia already in the beginning of “euromaidan” in December 2013 began to plan his invasion.
Voronenkov has repeatedly reaffirmed until his death readiness to testify, however, without explaining where he gets his information. For example, he said that the prosecution Yanukovych of treason “very reasonable”. Another time, speaking about Putin, he said that the decision “to Annex Crimea” was adopted in 2014 “only one person”. All the President’s entourage was allegedly against. “I testify, and all will become known”. That he thereby endangers himself, for Boronenkov was clear. He once said that he feared to be exported to Russia “in the trunk of a car”, another time he said that he knows that “the system in Russia is willing to destroy me.” Then when he was dead, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office reported that we are talking about anything else, as the “demonstrative” penalty shares, by means of which the Kremlin is punishing witnesses. This Ukrainian point of view, Boronenkov is a traitor of Russian interests and secrets.
However, there is another version. It’s born in 1971, former Russian Prosecutor who also worked on the Russian management on control over drug trafficking, as a small shopkeeper used his position to enrich. In mid-February on this issue in Moscow “the New newspaper” published an article in which Boronenkov depicted as a Deputy in Putin’s Russia — with a style of life that cannot be explained by official income. Voronenkov has used contacts in the security services, threatened investigation or promising protection. His name surfaced over the last ten years in several criminal trials, but surprisingly it each time spared. It surfaced also in “the Panama document” with firms in the British virgin Islands, where it was the possession of the property. Anti-corruption activist and opposition politician Alexei Navalny said in 2015 about expensive real estate and five luxury cars that Voronenkov acquired “in the public service since 1995”. In 2011 he became a Deputy of the Duma from the alleged opposition of the Communists, and there became acquainted with Maria Maksakova-Igenbergs, an Opera singer from the ruling party “United Russia”. With its help, according to “Novaya Gazeta”, he met with then-speaker of the Duma Sergey Naryshkin, who has in the meantime become head of the foreign intelligence Service, and responsible for Ukraine Kremlin Advisor Vladislav Surkov. Naryshkin even sang a duet with the bride at the wedding of this couple in 2015, which was then celebrated as the first sectarian wedding party in the Duma. Boronenkov and his wife were loyal supporters of Putin, blamed Ukraine’s “Maidan”, was elated over the annexation of Crimea.
However, in September Voronenkov was not re-elected to the Duma. After that, he and his wife left shortly before the end of the mandate and immunity to Kiev. Because in December 2014 the investigative Committee wanted to deprive Boronenkov immunity because the alleged illegal acquisition in Moscow the building cost of five million dollars. In December Voronenkov has received Ukrainian citizenship, according to him, because of his Ukrainian ancestors, and according to “Novaya Gazeta”, on the orders of President Poroshenko. Then in December in Moscow started the investigation against Boronenkov, and in early March the court ordered “arrest in absentia” of the former Deputy. Then he and his wife are from Kiev began to criticize Putin’s regime and compared it with Nazi Germany. Now he and his wife argued that they were not in the plenary hall during the adoption of the Crimea to Russia, and then the faction used their voting cards. Many deputies allegedly said that those who will not vote, “will not pass and 50 metres from the Duma”. Even Surkov was against the annexation, said the former MP. A Putin spokesman denied these statements.
“Novaya Gazeta” reported in addition, Boronenkov testified not only about the future, but also about corruption among high-ranking Russian civil servants. But the newspaper also quoted the former chief Boronenkov in management on control over drug trafficking, which said that the defector in Kiev will sign whatever he put on the table. In his alleged last interview Ukraine information portal Gordonua.com the accused denied the newspaper report as the order of the FSB that “in 2011,” put him on 25 man.
People gave evidence against him, allegedly in order to remain at liberty. Two-thirds of its 450 former colleagues-deputies allegedly oppose the war in Ukraine, but I’m afraid that “almost against any active in political and economic terms, the citizen will be opened investigative case.” He Boronenkov, does not deny that he tried to live in Putin’s Russia. The fact that he spoke in Kiev before the public, he said, should be viewed as a “safety feature”. To the question, does he fear to complete his life as the fleeing agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London with polonium in 2006, Boronenkov said that everyone someday will die, what matters is how they lived.
On Russian state television on Thursday were shown in detail the corpse Boronenkov, as well as snapshots of his young widow on the scene. In this crime former colleagues-deputies killed, one after another accused the Ukrainian security service SBU, claiming that she killed Boronenkov as a “sacred victim” to accuse Putin and Russia. Putin’s representative has denied allegations of Kiev about the “Russian trace” and stated that all suggests that Ukraine could not guarantee the safety Voronenkov. “Murder is always a tragedy,” Peskov said. Ilya Ponomarev, the second former member of the Duma, which gave Kiev the evidence against Yanukovych, wrote on Facebook that the victim was not a “crook” and “investigator and represented a mortal danger for Russian civil servants”.
