Russian artist and political prisoner Vladimir Yarotsky, who was imprisoned for drawing a caricature of Vladimir Putin, has died in a penal colony.
Independent Russian outlets Politzek-Info and SotaVision reported that Yarotsky committed suicide during the night of May 6 to 7 at the IK-7 penal colony in Khadyzhensk, a city in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. His death was disclosed in a letter from Alexander Nozdrinov, another political prisoner held at the same colony.
According to Nozdrinov, Yarotsky repeatedly complained of pressure from the prison administration, with SotaVision adding that he was forced to work at night despite having health issues.
Yarotsky was first tried in December 2023, when a court sentenced him to 1.5 years in a general-security penal colony for “desecrating a symbol of military glory.” The charge stemmed from a political cartoon he posted on social media depicting Putin, a penis, and a St. George ribbon, which has become a symbol of Victory Day commemorations in modern Russia. The sentence was later overturned, and the case was sent back for retrial.
In the spring of 2025, the artist was sentenced again, this time to 5.5 years in a penal colony. He was convicted of spreading “false information” about the Russian army and “desecrating a symbol of military glory” over a post about Russian battlefield losses in Ukraine.
SotaVision noted that Yarotsky was at least the seventh Russian political prisoner to die behind bars this year.
