A Russian artist who openly mocked president Vladimir Putin has been shot dead in Poland.
The 44-year-old exiled critic Robert Kuzovkov, also known as Semyon Skrepetsky, was killed in the city of Biala Podlaska, around 25 miles from the Belarusian border, on Monday morning.
Authorities said he was shot five times, including to his head, chest and back, in a car park near the Belarusian consulate.
Polish prosecutors said he was approached by a lone gunman and killed at close range. The gunman is said to have shot the artist twice before Kuzovkov fell to the ground, with three more shots as he lay on the ground.
“When the victim fell to the ground, the perpetrator approached, fired three more shots and then quickly fled the scene. Robert K died at the scene,” Marcin Kozak, a spokesperson for the district prosecutor’s office in Lublin, said on Tuesday.
“The victim engaged in public artistic activities and used, among other things, the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, under which he expressed criticism of the current policies of the Russian Federation authorities.”
Two Belarusian citizens, a 33-year-old and 37-year-old, have been detained in connection with the case, but their role in the incident is still being investigated, according to Kozak.
Five shell casings were discovered at the scene of the crime, including one Geco 9mm Luger bullet. An official autopsy has been scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
Belarus and Russia are close allies and have remained so throughout Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Arriving in Poland in 2021, Kuzovkov was known for his provocative political caricatures, including of Putin, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic.
One of his final protests in the days before his death included a demonstration outside the Russian embassy on 12 June in which he pulled the flag of Russia out from a back pocket and threw it in the bin.
In the video, he is seen wearing a T-shirt with a cartoon of Putin sitting on top of a pile of skulls, with the words “Russian culture” written above. He then went on to carry a portrait of Joseph Stalin holding Putin as a child and claimed he had received rape threats in the days before his killing.
Other images show naked politicians in varying poses with objects protruding from various orifices.
The news comes as world leaders gathered at the G7 summit in the French Alps on Tuesday, with the war between Russia and Ukraine a central fixture of discussions. President Donald Trump said that he had a “very good” discussion with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and advised Russia to make a deal.
