The killing of a Russian artist who often mocked Vladimir Putin was likely a ‘political murder’, Donald Tusk said last night. 

Semyon Skrepetsky was shot five times in the eastern Polish city of Biala Podlaska.

Polish prime minister Mr Tusk suggested he believes Monday’s killing was a hit job on the 44-year-old Putin critic, whose real name was Robert Kuzovkov.

He had staged a protest outside the Russian embassy in Berlin three days before his death. Mr Tusk, a former European Council president, yesterday said: ‘Everything points to this being a political murder.

‘But we must wait for evidence or more concrete indications, because if that was the case – if it was ordered by Russia – then it is an extremely serious matter internationally. It would constitute state terrorism.’

The pro-democracy activist was shot five times in the head, chest and back in a car park close to the border with Belarus.

Prosecutors said the victim was approached by an unidentified gunman who fired twice before shooting again at close range. 

Officers recovered five shell casings and a Geco 9mm Luger bullet from the scene.

Two Belarusian citizens were detained on Tuesday. But Mr Tusk said they had been released because authorities had no evidence of them being directly involved in the killing.

‘The case is difficult. If there’s a hired killer involved, it’s unfortunately not easy to identify such a person,’ Mr Tusk added.

He said Kuzovkov had been offered protection by Polish authorities, but had refused it.

In his satirical artwork, Kuzovkov portrayed Putin as a tyrant with blood on his hands.

He also ridiculed Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko and the warlord leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who are both Kremlin allies.

His visit to Berlin coincided with Russia Day, the national holiday, and he was filmed with a caricature of Joseph Stalin cradling Putin.

The shooting is the latest in a number of suspected assassinations of foreign dissidents.

Polish authorities arrested a man in what they said was an alleged plot to assassinate Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in 2024.

That same year, Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian military helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine, was shot dead in a car park on the Costa Blanca in Spain.