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Russian anti-war pianist Pavel Kushnir was fined 80,000 rubles ($880) for YouTube videos “insulting” Vladimir Putin while held in a pre-trial detention center prior to dying from a hunger strike, independent Russian publication Mediazona reported earlier today, citing a court ruling found on the Birobidzhan District Court's website.
The case was launched on June 13 by the Prosecutor of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region, Zaurbek Dzhankhotov, following a request from the regional office of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The fine was imposed by Judge Olga Yurtaeva nine days before Kushnir's death. He is the first political prisoner in the history of the Russian Federation known to have died as the result of a hunger strike.
At the time, the 39-year-old Kushnir was being held in connection with a case that accused him of “inciting terrorist activities.” His arrest was based on four videos posted on his YouTube channel — “Inoagent Mulder” (translated as “Foreign Agent Mulder”) — a likely reference to the eponymous detective Fox Mulder from the X-Files series. On the channel, Kushnir used poetry to criticize the policies of the Russian authorities, including the war in Ukraine. In one of his videos, Kushnir also mentioned taking part in protest actions in Moscow in 2011-2012.
Russian authorities claimed that two of Kushnir's videos on his YouTube channel, published on December 10, 2022, and April 27, 2023, contained “statements aimed at insulting the honor and dignity of the President of the Russian Federation in an indecent manner.” In these videos, Kushnir called the Putin regime “fascist.” On the day news of Kushnir’s death became public, “Foreign Agent Mulder” had five subscribers.
In the weeks since, “Inoagent Mulder’s” subscriber count has grown to over 1,500, with multiple comments praising Kushnir for his musical talent and political positions. The last entry features a speech calling for an end to the invasion of Ukraine, the end of “Vladimir Putin's fascist regime,” and freedom for all political prisoners.
In mid-August, world-renowned conductors, pianists, violinists and other musicians published an open letter in memory of Kushnir. They called him and other political prisoners from Russia “heroes and visionaries who, in their desperate loneliness, sacrifice themselves for humanity and pay the ultimate price.”
Pavel Kushnir grew up in Tambov and graduated from Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory before going on to work as a soloist in several regional philharmonic orchestras across Russia. He became a soloist with the Birobidzhan Regional Philharmonic in Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 2023.