The Story of How Russia Becomes a Democracy after Losing to Ukraine. To understand the significance of this book, Does Putin Have to Die?, you must first understand the significance of the author: Ilya Ponomarev was a member of the Russian Parliament, or State Duma, from 2007-2016. In 2014, he was the only member of the Russian Parliament to vote against the annexation of Crimea. However, this was not the first time he survived...