Ukraine grants citizenship to a former deputy of the State Duma who gave evidence against Yanukovych
Ukraine granted citizenship to Denis Voronenkov, former deputy of the State Duma, who gave evidence in the high treason case against Viktor Yanukovych.
“I am already a citizen of Ukraine. On the 4th of December my powers as deputy of the State Duma ended, and on the 6th of December I became a citizen of Ukraine,” he said in a censor.net interview.
He also affirmed that he is collaborating with the Ukrainian investigation.
“I would not like to elaborate on the materials of the preliminary investigation, but in short… Yes, I have evidence in the high treason case against Yanukovych. I considered it my duty to help my country and expose this villain. A previously convicted criminal who betrayed his people, ran away and asked for another country’s army to be brought in to destroy his own citizens,” the deputy stated.
Voronenkov hinted that he intends to take on some kind of position in Ukraine. “I am currently in the negotiation stages. First I got the citizenship, because without being a citizen of the country, it’s hard to qualify for any governmental positions,” he said.
“For me Ukraine is a second home country. My roots are also here, in the Kherson Oblast. That’s why I don’t feel like a foreigner or a visitor here. Ukraine accepts everyone who believes in her. There are many problems, but there is a trajectory, there is a spirit of freedom, and there are normal people. The first thing we saw when we came here is that the people are good and normal, there aren’t evil people. I don’t want to leave Kyiv,” he added.
While he was a deputy of the State Duma, Voronenkov voted for the annexation of the Crimea and the entry of Russian forces into Ukraine.
Voronenkov represented the Communist Party in the State Duma. In December he and his wife – also a former deputy of the State Duma – moved to Kyiv.
On the 23rd of January, Yuriy Lutsenko, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, said that his department was questioning two deputies of the State Duma. One of them was Ilya Ponomarev (who was given a residence permit in Ukraine last year), but the Prosecutor General did not name the other. “Their evidence attests that the mechanism of bringing Russian forces into Ukrainian territory was started by the Kremlin already in December, when Maidan still stood at the center of Kyiv. During Surkov’s visit in December, a possible military invasion was already spoken about,” Lutsenko said.
Viktor Yanukovych is accused because on the 1st of March 2014, while residing in Russian territory, he committed high treason by sending a written request to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the use of Russian forces in Ukrainian territory. This subsequently resulted in Ukraine’s loss of the Crimea and objects of state property amounting to more than 1,080 trillion hryvnia.
On Tuesday, the Russian media reported that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation had laid a charge in absentia against Denis Voronenkov, ex-deputy of the Russian State Duma from the Communist Party, and placed him on the federal wanted list.
This was reported by Kommersant with reference to sources in the Investigative Committee.
According to the information of the publication’s source, the Investigative Committee is accusing the former communist of organizing a particularly large scam – the raid of a building in the center of Moscow to the value of $5 million. The criminal case in which Voronenkov is accused was filed in October 2011.
It was commented that Voronenkov will most likely be tried in absentia by the court and placed on the international wanted list by Interpol. However, it is quite likely that Interpol will consider the Russian prosecution of the ex-deputy to be politically motivated.