An artist from Russia’s Far East hanged himself in a pretrial detention center after being arrested over a comment he had made the previous year, his friend told the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona.

Andrei Akuzin, 53, was arrested on April 2 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Khabarovsk Krai, said Tatyana Frolova, a theater director living in France. He had stopped responding to messages the day before his arrest. Until then, Frolova said, the two had been in frequent contact, including discussions about his possible departure from Russia.

After each conversation with Frolova, Akuzin would delete their correspondence — but he did not delete the exchange from April 1. In those messages, he repeatedly wrote that “the only protest one can make freely today is suicide.”

Mediazona was unable to find a record of Akuzin’s arrest on the websites of Komsomolsk-on-Amur courts. The specific charges against him remain unknown. He had no lawyer, Frolova said.

Akuzin turned 53 on April 7. The following day, he died by suicide in his cell, acquaintances in Komsomolsk-on-Amur told Frolova. He was added to Russia’s list of terrorists and extremists posthumously on April 10, Mediazona reported.

“He’s no terrorist — it’s just absurd. He just didn’t want to stay silent. Formally, they got him for some like or reply to some post,” Frolova said.

Akuzin was known in Komsomolsk-on-Amur as an artist; a solo exhibition of his work was held in the city in the 2000s. He later worked as a set designer at a drama theater and opened a business specializing in digital printing.

Akuzin’s name appears in leaked databases of so-called “oppositionists.” His personal Instagram contains no political statements, with one exception: a post from July 2022 in which he shared a video of an orchestra playing a military march in a Komsomolsk-on-Amur square, captioned “No to war.”

A Telegram bot that analyzes users’ public comments noted that Akuzin had shown interest in “protest” and in the Artpodgotovka movement, which Russian authorities have designated an extremist organization.