Shot while hunting
“Accidently shot while hunting” was the official version of the 2007 death of Yevhen Kushnariov, the eloquent ideologists of the Party of the Regions with a good chance to head the party. Kushnariov served as Kuchma’s chief of staff from 1996 to 1998, and as governor of Kharkiv oblast from 2000 to 2004.
During the 2004 Orange Revolution, Kushnariov called for the creation of an autonomous southeastern Ukrainian republic. After Yushchenko came to power, Kushnariov was arrested on separatism charges, only to be released on bail for $1.5 million. Kushnariov was instrumental in orchestrating the Region’s post-Orange comeback.
He was shot in 2007 while hunting with a group of friends and colleagues, and died in a hospital in Izium, Kharkiv Oblast. During the investigation, details emerged that the “hunters were a little drunk.”
Although prosecutors maintain his death was an accident, suspicions remain it was a politically-motivated murder in order to eliminate a strong competitor. “As an ordinary man, I don’t want to believe that Yevhen Kushnariov was killed accidentally,” Regions leader Yanukovych said.
