Luhansk, Ukraine | The owner of a deceased dog is making national headlines in Ukraine after his pet was allegedly murdered by Russian secret service agents.
The 5-year-old dog had achieved international stardom in 2013 after pictures of the dog became highly popular on the internet after attracting much attention for looking like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
People still recently flocked from all over Europe to get a picture alongside the famous look-alike of President Putin, recounts the owner.
“I’ve had thousands of people come to my village and meet with my dog to take selfies. Many reporters from newspapers all over the world also visited us. Anatol was very fond of crowds, he liked the attention a lot” he remembers, visibly heartbroken.
“I have received many anonymous death threats since Anatol became popular in international media, but I never took them seriously,” he told local reporters.
Men in black
Igor Valensky, the 67-year-old owner of the dog, is convinced that Russian agents are behind the murder of his dog.
“They came at night, while I was sleeping. I heard barking in my backyard, which was unusual and that is when I heard Anatol make a noise like he had been badly hurt. I looked out the window, and in the middle of the night, all I could see were two men dressed in black suits embark in a black car,” he recalls.
“All I know is that they were not Ukrainian because I clearly heard one of the men tell the driver to ‘hit the gas’ and what I found unusual was that he was talking in Russian”, he explains.The deceased dog was found with 6 bullet holes in his body, a fact that the owner finds utterly disturbing.
Shot multiple times
“Who would come out in the night and shoot my dog with a silencer?” he asks, visibly angered. “I heard no gun shot, nor did any of my neighbors, this was done in a professional hitman-like fashion,” he adds.
Intriguingly enough, analysis of the bullets by local police authorities has revealed the type of gun used by the assassins to be a Makarov PMM Semi-automatic pistol, the main service sidearm used by Russian Armed Forces.
WNDR