{"id":12335,"date":"2026-06-17T13:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/12335\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:01:20","slug":"fatal-shooting-of-russian-anti-putin-artist-likely-politically-motivated-polish-pm-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/12335\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatal shooting of Russian anti-Putin artist likely politically motivated, Polish PM says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fatal shooting in eastern Poland<\/a> of a Russian artist known for his caricatures of Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> was likely politically motivated, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk<\/a> said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“All indications are that this is a political murder,” said Tusk of the murder of Semyon Skrepetsky, whose real name is Robert Kuzovkov.<\/p>\n

“If it was commissioned by Russia<\/a>, then this is also a very serious matter with an international dimension,” he added.<\/p>\n

According to Polish officials, Skrepetsky was shot three times on Monday morning by an unidentified gunman armed with a handgun.<\/p>\n

When the artist fell to the ground, he was approached by the assailant, who fired two more shots at close range.<\/p>\n

The Polish government says they offered Skrepetsky protection, which he declined.<\/p>\n

Read morePutin’s ‘paranoia’: ‘He is fearful of Ukrainians & afraid the elite around him is starting to break’<\/a><\/p>\n

Two Belarusian citizens were arrested in conjunction with the artist’s death, but they have since been released according to Polish officials.<\/p>\n

An investigation by Polish services is ongoing.<\/p>\n

The case risks rekindling tensions between Poland and its neighbour Russia, which were exacerbated by drone crashes on Polish territory last autumn, which Warsaw<\/a> blames on Moscow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Skrepetsky was known for his sometimes provocative caricatures, which targeted prominent Russian political figures — ranging from Putin and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to opposition figure Alexei Navalny<\/a> and Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov.<\/p>\n

One of his best-known works reinterprets a classical Orthodox icon, depicting Stalin cradling Putin in place of the Mother of God holding the infant Jesus.<\/p>\n

Skrepetsky moved to Poland in 2021, saying he feared political persecution in Russia.<\/p>\n

In exile, he maintained a contrarian stance, attending Russian opposition events while openly criticising the opposition itself.<\/p>\n

Several opponents of the Russian authorities have been victims of attacks abroad, including in the United Kingdom, Germany<\/a>, and Lithuania<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moscow has always denied any involvement in these attacks.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fatal shooting in eastern Poland of a Russian artist known for his caricatures of Russian President Vladimir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[8840,1557,64,74,9,126,9002,518],"class_list":["post-12335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-tusk","tag-alexei-navalny","tag-art","tag-donald-tusk","tag-europe","tag-poland","tag-russia","tag-satire","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}