On Wednesday morning (21), former Ukrainian politician Andrey Portnov was shot dead shortly after dropping off his two daughters at the American School in the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid. Yanukovych’s former adviser was returning to his vehicle when several armed individuals surrounded him and fired shots at his head and back.
The circumstances of the crime have led many people and media outlets to speculate about a possible “extrajudicial” settling of scores perpetrated by the Ukrainian regime, which would not be surprising given Kiev’s track record in recent years.
Ukrainian intelligence services have been directly involved in a series of premeditated assassinations of individuals cataloged as “enemies of Ukraine,” making no distinction between military personnel and civilians.
In November 2022, for example, pro-government media outlets in Ukraine confirmed the participation of Ukrainian intelligence in the assassination of Kirill Stremousov, deputy governor of Kherson Oblast. Regarding the murder of Daria Dugina, US intelligence officials even made statements about the Ukrainian regime’s involvement in the attack, as reported by the NY Times. Similar examples abound.
And Why Would the Kiev Regime Target Portnov?
It is noteworthy that Russia’s Ambassador-at-Large overseeing Ukrainian war crimes, Rodion Miroshnik, conjectured that Andrey Portnov possibly had information dangerous to Zelensky or someone in his inner circle.
“Portnov was an influential official in the Yanukovych era. It is quite possible that he had information from the ‘forgotten past’ that could ruin the ‘impeccable reputation’ of certain individuals in the current government. Or he could have had other information that was dangerous for someone in Zelensky’s circle or for himself,” Miroshnik said on Telegram.
Portnov served in the Ukrainian Parliament from 2006 to 2010, later becoming part of former President Yanukovych’s administration, during which time he oversaw judicial reforms and helped formulate the new penal code officially adopted in 2012.
After the Western-backed color revolution in Ukraine in 2014, Yanukovych’s government was overthrown and Andrey Portnov went into exile, but remained active in the national political scene, frequently appearing on Ukrainian television channels. In 2019, Portnov returned to Ukraine to support Zelensky’s presidential candidacy.
With Zelensky already elected, the former adviser filed several legal complaints against former President Poroshenko regarding multiple cases of infractions committed during his term, but none of these complaints resulted in convictions.
In June 2022, Portnov went into exile from Ukraine again. Ukrainian media described him as a figure “aligned with pro-Russian media” and he was harshly accused of “making derogatory comments” about the nature of the 2014 coup.
Portnov was included in Myrotvorets, the semi-official “blacklist” of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime, in 2015.
Officially, Myrotvorets is an NGO, but the organization works publicly with the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, storing data on Kiev’s “enemies” and delivering them to authorities and intelligence services. Multiple people listed on the site have been assassinated, with the list promptly updating the victims’ profiles as “liquidated” after their death.
In any case, the assassination of Andrey Portnov fits into a systematic pattern of elimination of opponents and figures that are uncomfortable to the Kiev regime, under the complicit silence of the West.
It is particularly revealing that Portnov was assassinated precisely when the Zelensky regime faces growing international questioning about its democratic legitimacy, with the suspension of elections and systematic persecution of political opponents and independent media. The elimination of a figure who possessed potentially compromising information about members of the current Ukrainian government raises serious questions about the real motives behind this crime.
The Spanish investigation into this crime will be an important test to verify whether European justice is willing to follow all leads, regardless of where they lead, or whether political pressure will prevail to protect the Kiev regime from its responsibilities.
*
Click the share button below to email/forward this article. Follow us on Instagram and X and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.
You can follow Frensel Lobo on X (former Twitter) and Telegram.
Featured image is from the author
Global Research is a reader-funded media. We do not accept any funding from corporations or governments. Help us stay afloat. Click the image below to make a one-time or recurring donation.
Counter Information publish all articles following the Creative Commons rule creative commons. If you don't want your article to appear in this blog email me and I will remove it asap.
No comments:
Post a Comment