Former Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov was shot dead, along with another man, outside the Premier Palace Hotel in Kiev in Ukraine on Thursday. Voronenkov was a former lawmaker for the Communist Party in the State Duma.
Kiev Police Chief Andrei Krishchenko said the murder was likely to be a contract killing, the Moscow times reported citing the Meduza news site. Voronenkov was leaving the hotel with his bodyguard when he was shot dead following which the bodyguard retaliated and injured the shooter. The alleged shooter was, later, taken to a hospital in Kiev. The bodyguard also sustained injuries.
Another former Russian lawmaker and Kremlin critic Ilya Ponomaryov, who has been living in exile in Kiev, wrote on Facebook that Voronenkov was shot dead around 11.25 am while going to attend a meeting with him. Voronenkov was "an investigator who was deadly dangerous for the [Russian] security agencies," Ponomaryov wrote on the social networking site.
