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Kiev confirms death of Russian politician’s assassin

According to the police, Voronenkov was killed by a man born in 1988, who had a Ukrainian passport

KIEV, March 23. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed on Thursday that the killer of former Russian State Duma member Denis Voronenkov had died of wounds in a hospital.

"The killer of former State Duma deputy Denis Voronenkov died in a hospital," spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General Larisa Sargan wrote on her Twitter page.

The killer’s death was earlier reported by some Ukrainian outlets. Specifically, Public Television said "the doctors conducted four surgeries" on the killer and "made an open heart massage and managed to start it but this already didn’t help due to its long stoppage."

According to the police, Voronenkov was killed by a man born in 1988 who had a Ukrainian passport. The killer was known to the Dnepr police for committing crimes stipulated by articles 205 and 209 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (fictitious entrepreneurship and legalization of criminally-obtained incomes).

Voronenkov, a former State Duma deputy who emigrated to Ukraine in October 2016, was killed in a shootout near the entrance to the Premier Palace hotel in Kiev on Thursday.

As Kiev police chief Andrei Krishchenko said, the incident occurred at about 13:00 Moscow time (10:00 GMT), when the ex-parliamentarian was walking out of the hotel together with his security guard. At this moment, an unidentified man wearing a balaclava came up to Voronenkov and fired several shots at him from a TT pistol.

After that, the killer and Voronenkov’s guard exchanged fire, after which both were wounded and taken to hospital.

Voronenkov was a member of the Communist faction in the Russian State Duma. In December 2014 Russia’s Investigative Committee asked the State Duma to strip him of immunity in connection with a criminal case over a hostile takeover of a building in the center of Moscow. In April 2015 the Investigative Committee asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office for permission to indict Voronenkov on criminal charges. On February 15, 2017 a decision was made to bring him to justice in the capacity of an accused on falsification and fraud charges.

From February 27, 2017, Voronenkov has been on the international wanted list on the charges of gross fraud.

Moscow’s Basmanny Court sanctioned Voronenkov’s arrest in absentia on March 3. 2017.

As law-enforcement bodies told TASS on Thursday, the criminal case against Voronenkov may be terminated, if an official confirmation of his death is received, and also upon the consent of his relatives.

In 2016 Voronenkov emigrated to Kiev where he acquired Ukrainian citizenship.