Madrid, Spain
Cnn
–
Former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov, who worked as the main assistant to the former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, was shot dead outside the Spanish capital Madrid, a source from the Spanish national police told CNN.
Portnov, 51, was shot dead several times when he entered a car around 9:15 a.m. (3:15 a.m.), said the police source. Various attackers pulled him in the back and head, and then fled in a wooded area, said the source.
The shooting took place outside the American school in Madrid, located in Pozuelo de Alaracon, an affluent suburb just west of Madrid.
The school sent various urgent messages to the parents following the incident, which took place shortly after the school dropout, noting that all the students were safe and that the victim would be the father of a student, said a source close to the school in CNN. The school has just over 1,000 students from the United States, Spain and several dozen other countries.
Portnov was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 for corruption and corruption under the Magnitsky law. He was “crediblely accused of using his influence to buy access and decisions before the courts of Ukraine and a compromise of reform efforts”, according to the US Treasury department.
The Magnitsky Act, signed in December 2012, blocks entry into the United States and freezes the assets of certain representatives of the Russian and pro-Russian government and businessmen accused of human rights violations.
The Ukraine security service previously investigated the possible participation of Portnov in the annexation of Crimea by Russia, but the case was then closed.
The former politician fled the months of Ukraine after the launch of his large -scale invasion in February 2022, according to a Free Europe / Radio Liberty radio survey, when Draft age men were not allowed to leave.
Canada also frozen its assets in 2014 as part of a repression against “corrupt foreign officials”, in connection with its work as a former adviser to the former Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Portnov was appointed deputy chief of the Yanukovych administration in 2010, as well as the head of the main management of Ukraine for the judicial reform and the judicial system. At the same time, Portnov has become a member of the board of directors of the National Bank of Ukraine.
Yanukovych was driven from functions by mass demonstrations in Ukraine in 2014 after turning their backs on the European Union in favor of closer links with Russia.
Yanukovych then fled Ukraine for Russia, as well as Portnov and other former high-level civil servants following the pro-democracy pro-democracy 2014 protest. Portnov later returned to Ukraine in 2019.
Ukraine itself has never imposed any sanctions in Portnov.
In December 2024, media and civil society organizations of the country launched a petition requesting sanctions against him, alleging continuous corruption aimed at controlling the Ukrainian judicial power and highlighting the concerns he was going after critical journalists with prosecution and threats. Portnov published once the personal data of several members of an investigative journalism project led by RFE / RL, which examined its relations with the Ukrainian government.
The petition has gathered 25,000 signatures, but the cabinet of ministers of Ukraine rejected it, citing insufficient reasons for sanctions.
Portnov is not the only ally of former Ukrainian president Yanukovych who was killed after being ousted from power.
In 2015, CNN reported two high -level ball deaths in the Ukrainian capital – one of a former deputy with links with Yanukovych, the other of a Ukrainian journalist known for his pro -Russian opinions.
At the time, these murders renewed speculation on a conspiracy to kill people near Yanukovych, after three former members of the Parliament of his political party died by alleged suicide, found at home.
