Polish authorities are investigating the killing of Russian illustrator and cartoonist Robert Kuzovkov, known for his sharp anti-Putin work, after he was shot dead in the eastern Polish town of Biała Podlaska. The prosecutor’s office in Lublin said the 44-year-old, who used the pen name Semyon Skraptski, was hit at close range in a parking lot near an apartment building. Five bullets were fired, and one struck him in the head. Medics rushed to the scene but could not save him.
Two Belarusian citizens have been detained in the case, but no charges have been filed so far. According to the Russian opposition site Meduza, one of them was arrested near the Belarusian consulate in the city. The town’s location close to the Belarus border has added to the intrigue surrounding the case.
Just three days before the killing, Kuzovkov took part in a solo protest outside the Russian embassy in Berlin, where he staged an anti-Moscow performance and displayed a political drawing showing Joseph Stalin holding Putin as a child. He then returned to his home in Poland, where he had lived in recent years, and was killed shortly afterward.
Police have released security-camera footage of one suspect fleeing the scene and asked the public for any information that could help the investigation. Investigators are also considering whether the suspects changed clothes after the shooting to cover their tracks. Reports said a Belarusian taxi driver may have driven the suspects to the murder scene, but police believe he was not part of the planning and was forced to cooperate after being threatened with a gun.
