A Russian artist was shot and killed in the Polish city of Biala Podlaska, local outlets Podlaski.info and wPolsce24 reported. The victim was identified as Semyon Skrepetsky. DzikMedia, a Belarusian opposition Telegram channel, was among the first to report the killing.
Police released no official identification of the victim, saying only that he was a 44-year-old Russian citizen shot in a parking lot outside a local apartment building.
The wPolsce24 television channel reported that the gunman shot the artist several times at close range. Paramedics who responded to the scene were unable to save Mr. Skrepetsky. Following the killing, police sealed off roads and exits from the city, and placed schools and day care centers — where the victim’s children may have been — under guard.
The channel reported that the suspected killers most likely numbered two. One was apprehended near the Belarusian Consulate in Biała Podlaska. Unofficial reports identified the suspect as a Belarusian national.
According to DzikMedia, a Belarusian taxi driver drove the killers to the scene; when they pointed a gun at him, he panicked and tried to flee toward the Belarusian consulate.
It was unclear whether the two accounts referred to the same person. Police said they were still searching for the remaining suspect.
Semyon Skrepetsky (born Robert Kuzovkov), a native of the Altai region, was known for his caricatures of politicians. He had drawn satirical portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. According to iStories, Skrepetsky had also criticized Ukrainian authorities and was listed in Ukraine’s Myrotvorets database, which designates individuals accused of crimes against Ukrainian national security.
Three days before he was killed, on Russia Day, Skrepetsky traveled to Berlin, where he staged a one-man protest with an icon-like caricature of Joseph Stalin and Putin. Skrepetsky had lived in Poland since 2021.
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