Does Putin Have to Die?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 20072016. 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 after opposing Putin.