A Russian artist known for his caricatures of politicians has been shot dead in Poland. Semyon Skrepetsky was attacked on June 15 in a parking lot in Biała Podlaska, a city several dozen kilometers from the Belarusian border, according to Polish media including wPolsce24. The attacker shot him multiple times at close range before fleeing. Police confirmed they had identified the victim but declined to release his name, saying only that he was a 44-year-old Russian citizen.

Two Belarusian nationals have been detained in connection with the murder investigation. Unofficial reports suggest several people may have been involved in the killing. One was detained outside the Belarusian consulate general in Biała Podlaska after attempting and failing to climb the fence onto the consulate grounds. The Belarusian opposition Telegram channel DzikMedia, citing its sources, identified the man as a Belarusian taxi driver who had transported the people believed to have carried out the killing from Warsaw. He reportedly had no knowledge of their plans. The radio station RMF FM reported on the morning of June 16 that two Belarusian citizens had been detained. Police said the direct perpetrator of the killing had not yet been found. Polish media reported that Skrepetsky’s wife and four children were placed under police protection after the murder.

Skrepetsky was a satirist who mocked the Russian and Belarusian authorities as well as the Russian opposition. Semyon Skrepetsky was a pseudonym; his real name is believed to have been Robert Kuzovkov, though he never confirmed this publicly. He was known for his caricatures of Russian politicians including Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov. Skrepetsky left Russia for Poland in 2021 fearing political persecution. He was also critical of the Russian opposition and the Ukrainian authorities.

In Ukraine, Skrepetsky was listed in the “Myrotvorets” database. His entry states, among other things, that his Telegram channel regularly published “posts whose entire purpose was to foster a negative attitude toward Ukraine and Ukrainians.”

Days before his death, Skrepetsky had staged a protest outside Russia’s embassy in Berlin and had been receiving threats. On June 12, he brought a painting depicting Putin in Stalin’s arms to the Russian diplomatic mission. He was dressed in a jacket adorned with medals and had a Russian flag sticking out of a hole cut in the back of his trousers. Hours before his death, Skrepetsky posted to his Telegram channel negative comments he had received following the protest. They included threats.

Polish media are calling Skrepetsky’s murder a “political execution.” RMF FM noted that the attacker shot Skrepetsky several times at close range and then fired once more after he had already fallen to the ground. wPolsce24 published a roundup of commentary from Polish journalists writing about “Putin’s hired killers” and foreign intelligence services hunting down “the wrong kind of Russians.” Polish law enforcement has not officially put forward any theory of the murder.