Bashkir artist Semyon Skrepetsky was shot dead in Eastern Poland on 15 June. His last act before being assassinated was to appear, dressed in a mock uniform with medals, in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin carrying a picture of Stalin feeding Putin from his hand. Later, police arrested two Belarusian citizens in connection with the murder, who were trying to flee to the Belarusian embassy.

This murder seems to be part of Russian terror campaign against dissidents and pro-Ukraine organisers in Europe. The scale of operations by authoritarian regimes can hardly be estimated using anarchists’ and anti-fascists’ limited resources. According to ABC News, multiple Russian assassination attempts were disrupted in the past months in France and Lithuania. According to experts, the Russian state is switching from using its operatives to hiring people from organised crime groups to run operations, as the regime has been doing for many years inside the country.

Even though Semyon Skrepetsky can not be considered a high-value target for Putin’s regime, the punk artist was a sharp critic of the Russian world: apart from lambasting Russian society he also made public jokes about Putin and Chechen leader Ramazan Kadyrov – both very sensitive to public satire. In recent weeks Skrepetsky published a video in which he asks for forgiveness from Kadyrov while at the same time humiliating the him in front of the audience.

The assassination is a threatening message sent to the entire Russian opposition abroad. Even though the Russian state hasn’t killed many opponents in exile in the past 4 years, different organisers have certainly had to increase their security. Among others, the author of this text was warned by security forces in Germany that he might be targeted for kidnapping or assassination by Belarusian or Russian operatives.

Video: Semyon Skrepetsky on Telegram