Robert Kuzovkov, Russian artist critical of Putin assassinated in Poland

Robert Kuzovkov, Russian artist known for his satirising President Vladimir Putin has been shot dead in eastern Poland, officials said on Tuesday.

“An investigation is being conducted… into the murder of a 44-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation… known in the media as Semyon Skrepetsky,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Lublin, Marcin Kozak, told journalists.

Two Belarusian nationals have been arrested in connection with the killing, he added.

They were detained in the vicinity of the Belarusian consulate in Biala Podlaska in eastern Poland, where the killing took place.

But according to Lublin police spokesman, Deputy Inspector Andrzej Fijolek, the hunt for the suspected perpetrator of the crime is ongoing.

“We are still looking for the man who committed this crime,” he said, specifying that a special investigative team had been set up.

According to Polish officials, Skrepetsky – whose real name is Robert Kuzovkov – was shot three times on Monday morning by an unidentified gunman armed with a handgun.

When the artist fell to the ground, he was approached by the assailant, who fired two more shots at close range.

“The case is obviously serious,” Polish government spokesman Adam Szlapka told the press on Tuesday, adding that Poland had offered the artist protection, which he declined.

After the killing, the Polish press reported on Tuesday that Skrepetsky’s family had been moved to a safe location.

As it stands, “no charges have been brought” against the two detained Belarusians, Kozak said, adding that “they remain at the disposal of the prosector’s office and the police”.

Escalation risks

The case risks rekindling tensions between Poland and its neighbour Russia, which were exacerbated by drone crashes on Polish territory last autumn, which Warsaw blames on Moscow.

“If the political nature of this crime is confirmed, we will be faced with a new manifestation of the escalation of actions carried out by Russia beyond its borders,” head of the Poland’s National Security Bureau (BBN) Bartosz Grodecki wrote on X.

“Poland cannot become a space for such actions.”

Skrepetsky was known for his sometimes provocative caricatures, which targeted prominent Russian political figures — ranging from Putin and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to opposition figure Alexei Navalny and Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov.

One of his best-known works reinterprets a classical Orthodox icon, depicting Stalin cradling Putin in place of the Mother of God holding the infant Jesus.

Skrepetsky moved to Poland in 2021, saying he feared political persecution in Russia.

In exile, he maintained a contrarian stance, attending Russian opposition events while openly criticising the opposition itself.

Several opponents of the Russian authorities have been victims of attacks abroad.

In Britain, former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko died of polonium poisoning in 2006 and former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived a Novichok poisoning in 2018.

In Germany, the 2019 murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a separatist veteran of the Chechen war, shot dead by a Russian national, triggered a diplomatic crisis between Berlin and Moscow.

In 2024, Lithuania said it was “likely” that a hammer attack in Vilnius on Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s former right‑hand man, had been organised by Russia.

Moscow has always denied any involvement in these attacks.

Vanguard News

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