Russian Anti-War Activist and Pianist Dies in Prison on Hunger Strike

Russian troops on the Ukrainian battlefield. (Wikimedia Commons/Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation)

JAKARTA - Russian anti-war activist and pianist Pavel Kushnir has died while on hunger strike in prison, his mother said in a case the European Union called a shocking political crackdown.

Pavel Kushnir's death was first reported by Russian news sites last Friday and confirmed to independent outlet Mediazona on Monday by his mother, Irina Levina.

A Telegram channel with links to Russian security agencies reported in May that Kushnir had been arrested and charged with inciting terrorist activity after posting anti-war material online.

Levina told Mediazona that an investigator from the FSB security agency had told her that Kushnir died on July 28 while in pre-trial detention in Birobidzhan, in Russia's Far East.

It is unclear how long he had been on hunger strike. Levina said she had been told that her son was hooked up to an IV drip "but apparently this was not enough" to save him.

Kushnir was a talented concert pianist who had studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

"We couldn't help and send him a lawyer - we don't know. We didn't write him a letter of support - we don't know. We didn't persuade him to sacrifice himself - we don't know. He's all alone," he wrote on Telegram, according to Reuters on August 6.

Russia released eight dissidents from its penal colony last week along with former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, journalist Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva as part of the biggest prisoner swap with the West since the Cold War.

However, human rights group Memorial says some 333 people are still being held as political prisoners in Russia, which has stepped up a crackdown on dissent since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Kremlin says Russia needs to enforce its laws to protect against threatening and subversive activity, often said to be orchestrated by the West. It insists it does not comment on individual cases, saying that is a matter for the courts and prison service.