Democracy Digest: Suspect Arrested in Killing of Russian Artist and Putin Critic in Poland

On Thursday, Polish authorities arrested a man suspected of involvement in the fatal shooting of a Russian dissident in the eastern city of Biala Podlaska, in a case PM Donald Tusk described as a possible political assassination. The victim, identified by prosecutors as 44-year-old Russian citizen Robert Kuzovkov, was known publicly by his artistic pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky. His work was openly critical of the Kremlin, featuring biting portrayals of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and other senior Russian figures, including one painting showing the Russian president cradled by Soviet leader Stalin. He was shot dead on a residential street on Wednesday. According to investigators, the attacker fired multiple shots before fleeing the scene. Tusk said that investigators were still gathering evidence, but if a political motive were ultimately confirmed, the case could amount to an act of state-sponsored terrorism. A day later, the prime minister announced that police and Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) had detained a suspect carrying a Georgian passport. Authorities are now attempting to identify whoever ordered the killing. Earlier detainees, including two Belarusian citizens, were released after investigators found insufficient evidence linking them to the crime. In recent years, the Polish authorities have uncovered multiple Russian-linked espionage and sabotage networks, but this is potentially the first known assassination of a Russian dissident on Polish soil linked to the Kremlin.

In other news, Poland and Germany signed a new defence cooperation agreement on Wednesday, expanding military ties in areas including logistics, cybersecurity, military mobility and security in the Baltic Sea. The deal updates a 2011 framework and comes as Warsaw seeks to strengthen bilateral security partnerships amid growing fears over Russia. Yet the document also reflects the political constraints facing Tusk’s government. Unlike defence treaties signed with France last year and the UK in May, the German agreement was concluded at a lower level and does not include new mutual security guarantees beyond existing NATO and EU commitments. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said the government opted against a treaty because it would require ratification by President Karol Nawrocki, whose camp has frequently taken a confrontational stance towards Germany. The decision follows concerns Nawrocki could block or delay major agreements with Berlin, after also threatening to veto the recently signed treaty with the UK.

Slovak PM Robert Fico speaks during an extraordinary session of parliament held for a confidence vote in the government in Bratislava on 18 June 2026. PHOTO TASR – Jaroslav Novák

20 years on, Fico still standing; minister and Slovak investigators must settle dispute in court

It was exactly 20 years to the day on June 17 that Robert Fico won his first parliamentary election and began the path to becoming Slovakia’s prime minister for the first time. He was 41 years old. Since then, he has served as premier for more than 14 years and remained one of the country’s most influential political figures even when not formally holding the office. When Fico took power in 2006, Slovakia was benefiting from reforms introduced by previous governments and from the effects of EU membership. The economy was growing rapidly and was often described as a “Central European tiger”. The years that followed were marked by external shocks, including the global financial crisis, the Covid pandemic and the energy crisis that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Those external factors help explain part of Slovakia’s economic trajectory , but not all of it. Over the past two decades, economists have repeatedly warned that the country has struggled to move towards a higher value-added economy and remains stuck in the middle-income trap. The Czech Republic has widened its lead in average wages and household wealth. Public debt has increased more rapidly than in neighbouring countries and public investment has remained low by regional standards. Analysts at the National Bank of Slovakia have noted that the country has in recent years moved closer to Western European prices than to Western European salaries.

The anniversary also prompted discussion about how Fico himself has changed. Smer’s former culture minister, Marek Madaric, says he has become tougher, more utilitarian and more isolated over time. A former MEP of Fico’s Smer party, Boris Zala, argues that after 2014 Fico gradually moved away from the social-democratic and pro-European positions that once defined Smer and towards national conservatism. Former Smer MP Anton Martvon argues that in some respects Fico has come to resemble Vladimir Meciar, the dominant Slovak leader of the 1990s, whose governments were often criticised for authoritarian tendencies and left the country internationally isolated. Others see continuity rather than change.…