Scienceארטיום קירפיצו'נוק

Artyom Kirpitschenok

Artyom Kirpichenok is a Russian-Israeli historian and opinion journalist who was arrested in Israel in 2026 and charged with security offenses.

born 1975Writing critical of IsraelIsrael: The Road to CatastropheHis 2026 arrest in Israel

Born: 16 April 1975, Saint Petersburg
Occupation: orientalist, historian, journalist, opinion journalist
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Artyom Kirpitschenok was born in 1975 in Saint Petersburg

Artyom Kirpichenok was born on 16 April 1975 in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, in the Soviet Union. He moved to Israel in 1991 and served in the Israeli army.

He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned a doctorate there. His thesis dealt with Serbian settlements in Ukraine in the 18th century and was published as a book in Russian in 2007.

He taught at the Hebrew University and later returned to Russia, where he worked at the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He wrote books and articles on Israel, Zionism and the Middle East, many of them critical of Israel. In 2025 he headed the Slavic Studies Department at the Center for Arab-Eurasian Studies in Cairo.

In August 2026 he flew to Israel for an academic conference and was detained at Ben Gurion Airport. In September 2026 prosecutors indicted him for security offenses, and a court imposed a publication ban on further details. His family and friends say he is being persecuted for political reasons.