The family of the poet Lev Rubinstein denied reports of his death

The family of the poet Lev Rubinstein and his doctor did not confirm reports of his death on the evening of January 12. It is reported that he is in intensive care in a serious condition, Izvestia reports.

On Friday, several of his friends reported the poet’s death on social networks, but this information was not confirmed.

On January 8, Lev Rubinstein was hit by a car at a pedestrian crossing in the north-east of Moscow. He was taken to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute with multiple injuries, operated on and put into a medicated sleep.

A criminal case was opened against the 63-year-old driver of the car that hit Rubinstein. For causing serious harm to health as a result of violating traffic rules, he faces several years of imprisonment.

Lev Rubinstein is one of the brightest poets of Moscow conceptualism. He created his own genre of poetry at the intersection of literature, visual art and performance. Since the mid-1970s, he has been published in the Soviet “Samizdate” and abroad. He was close to the artistic and literary underground.

Since the 1990s, Rubinstein has been actively published in the mass media, including in Kommersant, Itogy, and Weekly Magazine.

Rubinstein is an active public figure. He spoke against the war in Chechnya, in defense of Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, against Russia’s support for separatists in Ukraine.

In 2017, he resigned from the Russian PEN Center, stating that the center does not fulfill its obligations to protect writers who are persecuted for their work. In March 2022, he signed an open letter condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Rubinstein is a laureate of the literary awards “NOS” and the Andrey Bely award. His works have been translated into many languages.