MAGA nation wasted no time echoing Kremlin propaganda after a Ukrainian politician was gunned down outside an elite American school in Spain on Wednesday morning.
Andriy Portnov was shot by unidentified gunmen while dropping off his children at outside the American School of Madrid, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry.
The 51-year-old was a former top aide to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and has long been viewed as a pro-Kremlin figure. He fled to Russia after the 2014 revolution in Ukraine.
He was shot five times by several gunmen at the entrance of the school, according to Spanish newspaper El País, which said at least three bullets hit him, including one to the back of the head.
Within hours of his killing, Kremlin newswire RIA Novosti ran an article claiming that Portnov “was preparing to publish compromising information on [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky.”
The article cited a Telegram post by Ukrainian blogger and journalist Anatoly Shariy, a Ukrainian wanted for treason. Ukrainian politicians and media have accused Shariy of peddling Kremlin propaganda. He denies the accusations.
Shariy said Portnov “was a long-time fighter against the Zelensky regime and the dictatorship.”
“Unfortunately, Andriy’s heart stopped before he made public the dirt on Zelensky and his criminal entourage,” Shariy wrote.
Prominent MAGA accounts on X were quick to suggest that Zelensky’s government was behind the killing.
“Zelensky taking out his political opponents?” wrote political commentator Rogan O’Handley, better known by the name DC Draino.
“Does anyone have a doubt?” responded Catturd, a popular pro-Trump internet personality.
“No question about it,” wrote political commentator David J. Freeman, known on X as Gunther Eagleman.
“Who thinks Z did it?” asked X user MAGA’s the fix.
Shariy alleged in another post on X that Portnov “was a long-time opponent of the Zelensky regime and its dictatorship.”
“I see only one beneficiary—the Office of the President,” he added. “The Office of the President is eliminating its dangerous enemies.”
No arrests have been made in the killing so far and the motive remains unclear.
Russian and Ukrainian authorities have yet to comment on the incident. The Daily Beast has reached out to the foreign ministries of Russia and Ukraine for comment.
Portnov was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2021, accused of being involved in corruption.
After Yanukovych fled Ukraine during the 2014 revolution, Portnov followed suit—first to Moscow, then to Vienna. But he returned to Kyiv in May 2019, a day before Zelensky’s inauguration.
Portnov briefly headed the Kremlin-friendly TV channel NewsOne from August to October 2018.
He later fled Ukraine again on June 3, 2022, a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine, amid mounting political pressure, and is reported to have settled in Spain.
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