Several independent Russian media outlets reported this week, citing Kushnir’s relatives, that the pianist died on July 28. Five days earlier he had begun a hunger strike to protest the charges against him. He also reportedly stopped drinking.
Kushnir was suspected of “publicly inciting terrorism,” a suspicion that might worry anyone in Russia who is critical of the military and the Kremlin. He was active on YouTube, where he posted four videos since 2022 under the username “foreign agent Mulder,” likely a reference to the science fiction series popular in the 1990s. The X-Files with the motto ‘The truth is out there“Foreign agent” is a label the Kremlin likes to apply to its critics.
About the Author
Maartje Geels is a news reporter for of Volkskrant.
In the latest video, which dates back seven months, he called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a fascist and called for an end to the war in Ukraine. “Life cannot exist under fascism. Freedom, creation, sincerity, truth, beauty and humanity,” he said in the video last January. He used poetry to convey his message.
‘Demonstration repertoire’
In front of the independent news website. Mid-zone Irina Levina said that she received the news of her son’s death from an employee of the FSB secret service. At the time of his death, Kushnir was in custody in Birobidzhan, in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, a region in Russia’s Far East. The authorities, the outlet quotes his mother, are said to have tried to treat Kushnir with an intravenous drip. It is unclear what exactly caused the musician’s death.
Kushnir was considered a celebrated pianist. He grew up in the city of Tambov, about 500 kilometers south of Moscow. The musician completed his training at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, one of the most prestigious in the country, and played with various orchestras throughout his career.
He published in accordance with the well established. The inside a book in which he criticised the Russian leadership. Friends of the musician claimed that even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he regularly took part in protests and fiercely opposed the Kremlin. Hunger strikes, explained his pianist friend Olga Shkrygunova, were part of his “demonstration repertoire”.
‘Continuous repression’
Kushnir regularly discussed her protests with her friends, aware of the risks she was taking. “I haven’t been arrested yet!” she wrote periodically, according to the same friend. In order to remain in Russia as an activist and escape pressure from the regime, Kushnir is said to have deliberately avoided large cities such as Moscow in her work.
Kushnir’s fate stands in stark contrast to that of the 16 prisoners freed by Russia last week in the largest prisoner swap between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. They included several Russians, including associates of former opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Navalny’s team raised money through X last week to return Kushnir’s body to his mother.
EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano lashed out at Russian leaders on X yesterday. Stano said the pianist’s death was a “shocking reminder of the Kremlin’s ongoing repression.” Russia’s leading human rights group Memorial previously estimated that more than 300 people were still held as political prisoners in the country.
