Russian Putin Critic Shot Dead In Poland; PM Raises Specter Of Political Assassination

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

WARSAW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Poland was investigating Thursday the killing of a Russian artist and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the murder bore the hallmarks of a political assassination.

Robert Kuzovkov, 44, known by the artistic pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, was shot dead Monday near his home in the eastern Polish city of Biała Podlaska, close to the border with Belarus.

“Everything points to this being a political murder,” Tusk told reporters in Warsaw. “But we must wait for evidence or more concrete indications. Because if that was the case — if it was ordered by Russia — then it is an extremely serious matter internationally. It would constitute state terrorism.”

However, Tusk stressed that investigators were still gathering evidence and had not determined who was responsible for the killing.

SHOT AT CLOSE RANGE

Prosecutors said Kuzovkov was approached around 9:45 a.m. by an unidentified man who fired two shots at him. After the artist fell to the ground, the gunman allegedly fired three more shots at close range before fleeing.

Authorities said Kuzovkov died at the scene from gunshot wounds to the head, chest, and back.

Five shell casings and a 9mm bullet were reportedly recovered from the crime scene.

Investigators initially detained two Belarusian citizens, ages 33 and 37, near the Belarusian consulate in Biała Podlaska. However, Tusk said they were later released because authorities found no evidence directly linking them to the killing.

KREMLIN CRITIC

According to prosecutors, Kuzovkov used his artwork to criticize “the current policies of the Russian authorities.”

His satirical paintings depicted Putin, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and other officials in an often unflattering manner.

One of his best-known works showed Putin cradled in the arms of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Kuzovkov fled Russia in 2021 and was granted asylum in Poland after expressing fears of criminal prosecution.

He lived in Biała Podlaska with his wife and five children.

DAYS BEFORE DEATH

Just one day before his killing, Kuzovkov posted a video on his YouTube channel showing himself in Berlin discarding a Russian flag into a trash bin during Russia Day commemorations on June 12, a holiday marking Russian sovereignty.

Friends said they had repeatedly warned him about the dangers of his increasingly visible activism.

“I kept telling him: ‘Mate, they’re going to come for you,’” his friend Bulat Subkhankulov told British broadcaster BBC.

The murder comes amid heightened concerns across Europe over alleged Russian operations targeting opponents of the Kremlin abroad.

SECURITY CONCERNS

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has faced accusations of attempting to intimidate, attack, or eliminate critics living outside Russia.

Officials in Germany have disrupted alleged plots targeting the head of a German weapons supplier to Ukraine and a Ukrainian military official.

In Poland, authorities arrested a man in 2024 over an alleged plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

That same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine was found dead in Spain, with investigators examining possible Russian involvement.

With Russia’s war in Ukraine now in its fifth year, the Kremlin has intensified pressure on dissenting voices, according to rights groups and Western governments.

In March, a Russian court banned the Oscar-winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin from three online streaming platforms, ruling that it “propagates extremism and terrorism.”

The Danish-Czech film follows Russian teacher Pavel Talankin and documents the spread of wartime propaganda and military indoctrination in Russian schools following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russian prosecutors argued that the documentary promoted a negative view of the war and the current government.

Polish authorities said the investigation into Kuzovkov’s killing remains ongoing.

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