On March 23, the Russian politician Denis Voronenkov joined an uncoveted list. Slain on a busy street in Kiev, Voronenkov became the latest in a series of sensational murders of Russian opposition members, including journalist Anna Politkovskaya, lawyer Stanislav Markelov, politician Boris Nemtsov, and defected spy Alexander Litvinenko.

As in earlier cases, theories abound about who was behind Voronenkov’s assassination. Unfortunately, the conflicting versions that people have chosen to advance are more a reflection of their position in the ongoing propaganda war between Russia and the “West” than any sober assessment of the evidence.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko quickly blamed Moscow for the murder, casting aspersions before any police investigation had even begun. European and American outlets have largely accepted this version. Russia, on the other hand, has dismissed the accusations as “absurd.” And Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Russian Communist Party, which counted Voronenkov as a member, says he believes that the Ukrainian security service, or possibly even the CIA, was responsible for the assassination.