Former Russian lawmaker shot dead in Kiev, police say

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - A former Russian lawmaker was shot dead in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday, local police said.

Denis Voronenkov, a former deputy in Russia’s Duma, was shot outside the Premier Palace Hotel in central Kiev, head of police Andrey Krishchenko said, according to the Interfax news agency.

“The dead person is identified,” he said. “He is a Russian politician, a former deputy of the State Duma.”

The killer and Voronenkov’s bodyguard were wounded during the attack, he added.

Krishchenko said police were viewing the murder as a contract killing.

Interfax reported Presidential spokesman Sviatoslav Tseholko as accusing Moscow over the attack.

Voronenkov, 46, left Russia for Ukraine in 2016, renouncing his Russian citizenship. He was an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s policy in Ukraine.

“The insidious murder of Denis Voronenkov in the center of Kiev is an act of state terrorism on the part of Russia, which he had to leave for political reasons,” Tseholko said, quoting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

He added that Poroshenko considered Voronenkov to be “one of the main witnesses” of “Russian aggression” in eastern Ukraine.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations as “absurd”, the TASS news agency reported. “We hope that the murderer and those who stood behind these actions will be identified,” he said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was “shocked” by the killing.

“The available data suggests that it was a contract murder,” Zakharova told reporters in comments reported by TASS.