Polish Prime Minister Says Killing of Russian Dissident Artist in Eastern Poland Appears Political
Poland’s prime minister has said the killing of Russian dissident artist Robert Kuzovkov in eastern Poland “everything indicates” was a political assassination, raising the possibility of a case that could reverberate far beyond the town where he lived. Donald Tusk made the remarks in Warsaw on Wednesday, June 17, after Kuzovkov was shot dead two days earlier in Biala Podlaska, a town near the Belarusian border.
Tusk said the government still needed evidence before drawing conclusions, but added that if Russia were found to be behind the attack, it would amount to “an act of state terrorism.” Kuzovkov, who worked under the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, was 44 and the father of five. He had moved to Poland in 2021.
According to Polish authorities, he was shot three times in broad daylight while walking along a sidewalk. Two Belarusian men detained after the murder were later released. Polish media also reported that Kuzovkov had previously declined a protection offer from Poland’s Internal Security Agency.
Kuzovkov built an online following through grotesque caricatures that targeted Soviet and contemporary power figures alike. His drawings mocked Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov, Alexander Lukashenko, Alexei Navalny, and Volodymyr Zelensky. One of his best-known images showed a baby Putin in Stalin’s arms, rendered in the visual language of Russian Orthodox icons.
He posted frequently on Telegram under the title “Semyon Skrepetsky’s Picture Gallery.” On June 14, he shared images of himself holding the Stalin-Putin icon outside the Russian embassy in Berlin, near the Brandenburg Gate. That same day, he posted a YouTube short set to a Rammstein track in which he pulls a Russian flag from his posterior and throws it into a trash can. His final post, on June 15, included screenshots of threats against him, among them a warning that it was “a six-second operation” to find him.
Russian state news agencies Tass and Ria Novosti also reported the killing. Ria Novosti noted that Kuzovkov was listed on Myrotvorets, a database that tracks public figures seen as hostile to Ukraine, while a Crimea Vox post emphasized his support for Indigenous rights under Moscow’s rule. The killing now sits at the intersection of art, exile, and the increasingly dangerous politics of online dissent.
