Russian Artist Robert Kuzovkov, Known as Seymon Skrepetsky, Killed in Poland After Political Performances
A Russian artist whose work openly mocked some of the most powerful figures in the Kremlin’s orbit was shot and killed Monday in Biała Podlaska, in eastern Poland. Robert Kuzovkov, who performed under the name Seymon Skrepetsky, had lived in Poland since 2021 after saying he feared political persecution. Two Belarusian nationals have been detained in connection with the killing, though no charges have been announced.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday that the death was likely a political assassination. A police spokesman told the broadcaster TVN that investigators had not yet established a motive. Marcin Kozak, spokesman for the district prosecutor’s office in Lublin, said an unidentified person fired three shots from a handgun, then approached the fallen artist and fired two more at close range. The body showed five entry wounds and two exit wounds in the head and chest, according to the Telegraph.
Skrepetsky built a following through sharp, confrontational portraits and performances aimed at Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, Ramzan Kadyrov, and Patriarch Kirill. His targets also included Ukrainian authorities and Russian opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, and Maxim Katz. In Berlin just days before his death, he performed outside the Russian embassy with a portrait of a grinning Josef Stalin holding an infant Putin, a composition that echoed Orthodox icon painting while blood dripped from both figures’ mouths. He also pulled a Russian flag from his pants and threw it into a trash can.
During the Venice Biennale preview week, he traveled to Italy and appeared with two paintings satirizing Putin. The Russia pavilion was already under intense scrutiny after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and protest groups including Pussy Riot and FEMEN staged demonstrations outside the pavilion.
Reports say Skrepetsky had received threats in the days before his death and had posted images of them online just hours earlier. He was also listed in the Myrotvorets database, which identifies people the site’s authors consider enemies of Ukraine; his entry was reportedly updated to read “liquidated.” The killing adds another grim chapter to the long reach of political violence surrounding artists and dissidents from the former Soviet sphere.
