Imprisoned Russian anti-war pianist dies alone

Whereas america and Russia had been busy finalizing the most important prisoner alternate for the reason that Chilly Struggle, a gifted however little-known Russian pianist died quietly in jail.

Pavel Koushnir, who has repeatedly protested in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, went on a starvation strike shortly after his arrest in Could and later refused to drink water.

He died slowly and with out publicity on July 28 – 4 days after a gaggle of high-profile dissidents had been changed by Kremlin spies, undercover brokers and hit males imprisoned within the West.

After the 39-year-old died alone in a pretrial detention heart in Birobidzhan, Russia’s far east area, solely 11 individuals mourned on the crematorium.

Siberian unbiased politician Svetlana Kaverzina mentioned nobody tried to persuade him to not sacrifice himself as a result of that they had no concept what was occurring.

“We won’t afford to ship him a lawyer – we do not know,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “He was alone.”

On the time of Kushnir’s arrest, his YouTube channel, the place he had launched 4 anti-war movies, had solely 5 subscribers.

His “Overseas Agent Mulder” put up was a reference to the character from The X-Recordsdata, an American TV collection common in Russia within the Nineteen Nineties, and a reference to a Russian legislation that enables individuals deemed politically suspect to be Declared a “international agent.” In a single clip, Kushnir even seems sporting a hand-drawn FBI badge.

His final movie, launched in January, recounted the 2022 bloodbath of civilians by Russian troops in Bucha, a suburb of Kiev.

Months later, Operational Stories, a Telegram channel with shut ties to the Secret Service, posted a video exhibiting masked males main Kushnir right into a white minivan.

It added {that a} prison case had been opened in opposition to him for making public calls to commit terrorist actions, which carries a penalty of as much as seven years in jail.

Till August 2, an article revealed by the web information company Vot Tak by human rights activist Olga Romanova and pianist good friend Olga Shkrygunova revealed the information of his loss of life.

His 79-year-old mom, Irina Levina, later confirmed her son had died.

Kushnir was born in Tambov, central Russia. His father, Mikhail, was a pianist and educator, and his mom was a music college trainer.

He started taking part in the piano on the age of two, and on the age of 17 he gave a shocking two-and-a-half-hour live performance, taking part in 24 preludes and fugues by the composer Dmitri Shostakovich .

Later that yr, he was admitted to the Moscow Conservatory, the place he cultivated a “dissident picture,” in accordance with classmate Julia Wertman, typically sporting shabby coats and black garments with pockets Carrying a half-liter bottle of vodka.

In a 2005 interview, when requested what piece he would by no means carry out, he replied: “The Russian nationwide anthem.”

Shkrygunova mentioned that after commencement, Kushnir intentionally went to work in a small metropolis, believing that he would have extra musical and private freedom outdoors of Moscow.

He moved to Yekaterinburg after which Kursk and spent three years in Kurgan, a metropolis east of the Ural Mountains, earlier than shedding his job with the philharmonic orchestra there in 2022.

Shkrigunova did not know the precise motive for his dismissal, however added: “It was a cog that did not match into any machine, and it had been that manner since his childhood.”

After 4 months out of labor, he turned a soloist with the Birobidzhan Philharmonic Orchestra, telling native tv: “If I do not go to jail, be a part of the military or get fired, then I hope to spend the subsequent 12 years with you.”

Kushnir spent his free time protesting in opposition to the battle.

In an electronic mail to a good friend, he described posters put up round Birobidzhan at night time with slogans angrily condemning the draft and describing Vladimir Putin as a fascist.

He additionally started starvation strikes: first for 20 days within the spring of 2023, after which for 3 months later that yr.

Shkrigunova mentioned Kushnir knew he was placing himself in peril.

“That was his solely protest,” she mentioned, “the conduct of a person who did not know what else to do.”

She tried to persuade him to go away Russia, or at the least carry out in Berlin, the place she now lives. However they had been by no means capable of prepare the journey.

In late March, Kushnir final spoke to Skrigunova, telling her that he felt like he was being watched and that he “saved seeing the identical individual.”

“No matter occurs, occurs: I do it for a motive,” he added.

There is no such thing as a details about the prison case in opposition to him within the information of the Birobidzhan Municipal Court docket, however there are information of a non-criminal case for “hooliganism” filed on 20 June.

On July 19, Kushnir was fined an undisclosed quantity, nevertheless it was unclear whether or not he attended the listening to.

The courtroom subsequently despatched him a replica of the judgment, nevertheless it was returned on July 30 with the annotation “undeliverable.”

In fact, Kushnir was lifeless by then.

Unbiased information web site Mediazona spoke to an individual who met him shortly earlier than his loss of life.

They described him as “like a skeleton” who may barely stroll by mid-July and was in “very unhealthy situation”.

The official explanation for loss of life was “dilated cardiomyopathy and congestive coronary heart failure.”

The Monetary Stability Board and the Birobidzhan Court docket didn’t reply to the BBC’s requests for remark. Vasily Mikhaylenko, the regional head of Russia’s jail service, informed Mediazona he knew nothing concerning the case.

After Kushnir’s loss of life, his mom informed Okno, one other unbiased information group, that she tried to affect her son however failed.

“I will surely like him to behave in a quieter manner and avoid politics altogether.

“I am sorry he gave up his life for what was clearly a pointless incident.”

However Shkrigunova disagreed, saying Kushnir at all times knew he was risking his life to precise his anti-war views.

“He understood that there is likely to be one other manner,” Skrigunova added.

“However when he realized that, there was no turning again. He knew he was going to go all the best way, so it would not be in useless.

Kushnir obtained extra consideration after his loss of life than throughout his lifetime.

A guide he wrote in 2014 was rapidly republished in Germany.

Grace Chatto, a member of Grammy-winning digital music group Clear Bandit who studied with Kushnir on the Moscow Conservatory, took to Instagram to pay tribute to her “light and humorous” Buddies paid emotional tributes.

Twenty-two main classical musicians, together with Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle and Martha Argerich, have written an open letter to commemorate a “outstanding artist” that they had by no means met.

Though Kushnir’s YouTube channel solely had single-digit subscriber numbers throughout his lifetime, his hottest movies have now been considered greater than 22,000 instances.