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Russian Artist Killed in Poland Days After Mocking Putin at Berlin Embassy
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A Russian dissident artist known for caricatures mocking the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, was shot dead in eastern Poland, Polish media reported on June 16.
Outlets, including WPolsce24, reported that Semyon Skrepetsky was attacked on June 15 in a parking lot in Biała Podlaska, a town a few dozen kilometers from the border with Belarus. The assailant fired several shots at close range and fled.
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Polish journalists are describing the killing as a "political execution," and the detention of Belarusian suspects near a Belarusian consulate has sharpened fears that Russia's campaign against its critics abroad has reached deep inside European Union territory.
Polish police stated that the victim's identity had been established but withheld the name, describing only a 44-year-old Russian citizen. Two Belarusian citizens have been detained as part of the investigation, the radio station RMF FM reported on the morning of June 16, though police indicated the gunman himself had not yet been found or arrested.
Unofficial accounts suggest several people took part. One man was detained near the Belarusian consulate in Biała Podlaska after he reportedly tried to scale the building's fence, according to the Belarusian opposition Telegram channel DzikMedia.
Citing its own sources, the channel described him as a Belarusian taxi driver who had brought those likely involved from Warsaw and was unaware of their plans.
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RMF FM noted that the attacker fired a final shot while Skrepetsky already lay on the ground. His family—a wife and four children—was placed under protection after the killing.
Skrepetsky, a pseudonym, drew caricatures targeting Russian and Belarusian authorities and the Russian opposition, and he also criticized Ukrainian authorities, which led to his inclusion in Ukraine's Myrotvorets database.
His real name is believed to be Robert Kuzovkov, though he never publicly confirmed it. His work lampooned Russian politicians, including Putin and the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. He left Russia for Poland in 2021, fearing political persecution.
Days before his death, the artist staged a protest outside the Russian embassy in Berlin and reported receiving threats. On June 12, he brought a painting depicting Putin cradled in Joseph Stalin's arms to the diplomatic mission, appearing in a medal-laden tunic, bast shoes, and a fur hat, with a Russian flag protruding from a cut in his trousers.
Hours before he was killed, he published on his Telegram channel a selection of the hostile comments he had received after the stunt, some of them threats.
Polish law enforcement has not formally advanced any version of the killing, leaving the motive officially open as the investigation continues. WPolsce24 collected commentary from Polish journalists invoking "Putin's hired killers" and foreign intelligence services hunting "the wrong Russians."
The killing fits a pattern Western intelligence agencies have tracked since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as May reports show that Moscow has sharply escalated a campaign of targeted assassinations across Europe, shifting its focus toward Russian dissidents and foreign supporters of Ukraine.
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