That's so sad. I just looked up his artwork and it's hilarious. RIP Semyon Skrepetsky
Putin is uncowed, clearly. It's hard to know what the truth of things is. It's clear he's on his back heels in Ukraine and at home, but perhaps he still holds a strong position.
as Russia unravels further expect to see more of this
headline makes it seem obvious who did it, but he didn't fall out of a window... so I'm going to wait for an investigation before I make up my mind
Russian assassins on foreign soil are also known to shot people during the day in broad daylight, just as [0] did in 2019 in Berlin Tiergarten park. Unfortunately, he was exchanged and is living freely after only a few years in german prison.<p>[0]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadim_Krasikov" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadim_Krasikov</a>
There's so few gun related homicides in Poland that an execution style murder is 100% either mafia affairs or assassinations: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Poland#Gun_deaths_and_crime" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Poland#Gun_deaths_...</a>
It seems obvious enough and there's a temporal correlation, too.<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyrzd5g6k2o" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyrzd5g6k2o</a><p>>Video posted recently on social media showed Skrepetsky at a Russia Day protest outside the Russian embassy in Berlin on 12 June.<p>>He had been carrying a painting caricaturing Putin and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, as well as a Russian flag tied to his trousers that had been dragging along the road.<p>The Russian trolls are out in force, suggesting that he might have been killed by some confused psychos or something.
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The article also doesn't really outline anything that makes sense as a motive. I'd imagine there are a number of artists in Poland critical of ... pretty much anyone you care to name but especially the Russian leadership. Artists are hard to please.<p>The article seems to be hinting this was a Russian or Belarusian assassination, which might be true. Sounds like <i>someone</i> assassinated him. But if so there is a big hole to fill in the story on what a plausible reason is. Based on this my first guess would be that something in his private life spilled over, but I expect there is a section of the story that isn't in the news right now.<p><i>EDIT</i> Also related only by the vaguest vibe, but <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeiweiCam" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeiweiCam</a> is more what I'd expect for artistic dissidents and is truly remarkable modern art.
Would it make sense to a government like that to assassinate one critic at random periodically just to keep fear high?<p>RIP<p>Edit: didn’t see him holding satirized pictures of that president, almost withdraw the question
No. And pretty obviously not, look at the response. For people to hear about political assassinations it has to make the news and be widely discussed. There isn't any point murdering artists to "keep fear high", that just gives them something to create art about.<p>The usual tactic is to brand people as troublemakers then try and limit the news coverage they get. Or hit them with a smear campaign which is cheaper, easier and less likely to attract negative publicity like an assassination would. As a bonus the smear approach also directly discredits the message they were spreading.
While this did make the news I suppose not widely enough.<p>Have you seen this kind of reporting?-<p>> Russia is ramping up its attempts to kill opponents in Europe, intelligence officials say <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/russia-ramping-attempts-kill-opponents-europe-intelligence-officials-s-rcna344115" rel="nofollow">https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/russia-ramping-attempts...</a><p>Could they please get back to smearing (or even… ADDING value to the world! once they have a better leader for their good people)
> The article also doesn't really outline anything that makes sense as a motive.<p>That is the whole point. You can't maintain a dictatorship if you let people get to the point of being a clear threat, because sooner or later, someone could slip through the cracks and take you out. You can't keep the leash this loose.<p>As a dictator, you <i>must</i> go after people for seemingly small things, such as merely expressing the wrong thoughts, making the wrong kind of art, and so on. That sends a message to everyone that even small transgressions carry an unacceptable risk, so if your neighbor keeps criticizing the government, maybe you should report them, not join their discussion club that may become a real political movement.<p>For a while after the revolution that established your regime, people are on their best behavior because you just finished summarily executing hundreds of thousands or millions for having the wrong views. But both in Russia and in China, it's been a long time since that happened, few people remember Stalin or Mao, and so you need to keep sending behavioral nudges in a different way.<p>Also, modern-day Russia embraces a "budget" / "disposable asset" approach to terrorism. If you're important enough, they will send an elite squad to poison you. If not, they literally recruit people on the internet to beat you up, set a warehouse on fire, etc. So you also have to look at developments like as something that's cheap and largely risk-free.
You can. Prigozhin, for example - the Russians have had an actual quasi-military revolt in recent times from someone who was publicly telegraphing that he didn't agree with the decisions being made by leadership. He was almost certainly assassinated by the Russians too. But that illustrates how real a threat has to be before it actually matters.<p>If this guy was having that sort of impact on the Russian discourse then the article is definitely missing a lot of important information.
> The article also doesn't really outline anything that makes sense as a motive.<p>False. The article makes it very clear what would make sense as a motive here.
I want to believe.<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/940390507" rel="nofollow">https://vimeo.com/940390507</a>
The KGB/FSB mafia is kind of in a state of war with the other european countries.<p>These executions follow a very similar pattern. Two other I can think of are Selimchan Changoschwili in 2019 and Maxim Kusminow in 2024; with regards to the latter, perma-drunk Dmitry Medvedev babbled about "a dog's death to a dog" nonsense. Tie to this the genocide Putin commits presently against Ukrainians.<p>I think there is no real "reasoning" possible with the current regime. It's not just Putin, naturally, but a whole parasitic society sitting and feeding on top of this mafia structure. Naturally a direct war is not really possible due to the mafia having access to nukes, but there has to be a complete shift - the diplomatic axis has to exist (no alternative to that from an objective view) while the military side also has to be strengthened, not only in Ukraine but all countries being close to Russia and the Belarus satellite state. Putin will never change as long as he is still alive. And even when he is gone, I have a slight feeling that it is more likely that one of the mafia group will take over anyway.
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> haven't heard Russians deliberately sniping kids on a daily basis<p>Sniping - no, but mostly because they can't aim and resort to shelling/bombing the genera area, even if it's far from the frontlines.<p>Plenty of children died like that already, but you don't hear about this because they don't have a PR machine behind them.
> haven't heard Russians deliberately sniping kids on a daily basis<p>That would be insane! Kidnapping them en masse in Ukraine, and raise them as russian on the other hand...
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Equally bad or not as bad? Both can't be at the same time.<p>Also, if those kids are raised as soldiers and then "used" to kill more Ukranians or as cannon fodder, wouldn't that be even worse than killing them in the first place in some ethical view?
Putin did kidnap +10k kids though. I don't understand you people and why it is so important to talk down the attempted genocide against the Ukrainians. Its almost like discord and not justice is the purpurs of your kind of talking points.
I am not downplaying Ukrainian losses, I am pointing out to how biased is BBC.<p>Also, read carefully, BBC mentioned Russians twice, (Russian artist, and Putin critic) even though that person also criticized Ukrainian politicians. Why single out Russia, especially when it's not proven yet who killed him.<p>In case of Gaza though, it is 100% clear who shots kids deliberately
<a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/average-least-16-children-killed-or-injured-ukraine-every-week-escalation-war-nears" rel="nofollow">https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/average-least-16-child...</a><p><a href="https://zmina.info/en/news-en/russia-has-killed-661-ukrainian-children-since-start-of-its-full-scale-war/" rel="nofollow">https://zmina.info/en/news-en/russia-has-killed-661-ukrainia...</a>
Both are bad. You seem to imply that BBC inflates Putin evilness, or that it tune down Netanyahu evilness, and IMO they are both represented.<p>In fact, I have the impression that you are the one trying to downplay Putin, for example saying "Ukraine loses" instead of "Russian kidnapp" or "Russian warcrimes".
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You can say this about numerous things. I fail to see any connection here.<p>So, let's assume he was a bad artist. How does this offset or negate being assassinated by a state?<p>I also fail to see how "provocative insults" are relevant here either. Am I talking to a russian AI bot here?
First, you presume the state assassinated him.<p>Second, my first word was "Sad", so there"s no negation for being assassinated by anyone.<p>Third, I don't know how old you are, but I presumed most adults know that critics of Putin are known to mysteriously die.
So what is the point in saying you personally don't like his art?<p>I mean: "JFK shoot in the head", your comment "didn't like his shoes anyway".
What's the point of me saying this? Ya'll are just angry and failing to express the reason for your emotions.<p>The man lived in a country where vocal, public opponents of Putin get murdered. He also offended his country's (and Putin's) religion. He could have painted at least realistic-looking political figures, but chose to represent them in a vile-looking manner. That's bound to piss people off.<p>There's entire articles online saying exactly the same thing I'm saying.
>respected religious symbols in his country<p>lol... are you from the Middle Ages?
Nothing to see here guys, we have already arrested the perpetrators, move along and hail Putin.
> 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.<p>Misleading title.