A staunch critic of Putin, Lev Rubinstein, has died after being hit by a car in Moscow.
Rubinstein was a leading figure in the Soviet underground literary scene who was known for his conceptual artwork which mocked the traditional Soviet-era realism art from the 1970s and 80s.
His daughter Maria announced his passing on a LiveJournal blog which was picked up by Russian media: “My dad, Lev Rubinstein, died today.”
Rubenstein, who passed away at the age of 76, was hit by a car on January 8 and spent several days in a coma.
Putin critics dies after being hit by a car in MoscowGettyThe 76-year-old created his own genre of art, a merge between poetry and theatre, which challenged the Soviet Cold War rhetoric.
The Memorial Human Rights organisation, one of the oldest civil rights groups in Russia, described Mr Rubinstein as “shakily poetic, astute and ironic”.
He began his career in the 1960s, before rising to prominence in the 1970s and 80s as a leader of the Moscow Conceptualist school of artists and poets.
Once the USSR collapsed, his work was widely published around the world.
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Rubenstein was hit by a car on January 8 and spent several days in a coma.
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Rubinstein was a harsh critic of Putin, denouncing his attack on Ukraine in February 2020 as a “criminal war”.
As part of his tough stance against the Russian offensive in Kyiv, he signed an open letter with others slamming the “lies” of the Kremlin.
He had also taken a strong stance against Moscow’s attitude towards LGBT rights.
“His tragic death in January 2024, just on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the catastrophe seems bitterly symbolic,” Memorial said.
A Soviet realism painting of Lenin
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“Our tense desperation and hope, the powerlessness and fear of the past days, the coma and muteness of Lev Rubinstein – this is us today.”
Despite his heavy criticism of the Russian government during the conflict in Ukraine, he was never arrested or prosecuted.
Rubinstein, who also worked as a Librarian during the Soviet era, was taken to hospital in a critical condition after being hit by a vehicle.
The transport department of Moscow said “the driver did not slow down” as Rubinstein was crossing the road.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the accident.