An artist who mocked the Kremlin with his pencil was shot dead in broad daylight on a street in Poland. Russian cartoonist Semyon Skrepetsky (44) was killed on Monday morning in Biala Podlaska, eastern Poland, not far from the border with Belarus. Police suspect a contract killing.

Skrepetsky fled Russia in 2011, fearing political persecution. He was known for satirical drawings aimed at Vladimir Putin, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and others in the Russian government. Only days before his death he had protested outside the Russian embassy in Berlin, holding a drawing in which the Soviet leader Stalin feeds a young Putin. The pencil against the bullet - and the pencil lost.

According to a police spokesman, „if someone approaches a specific person on the street and shoots, everything points to an intent to kill." Shortly after the shooting near the Belarusian consulate, a man suspected of being a Belarusian citizen was detained, though authorities have not yet officially confirmed the arrest. The incident comes amid strained relations between Warsaw and Moscow over alleged hybrid operations.

The Balkans know this story well - a dissident who flees home thinking the border is protection, only for home to catch up with him where he didn't expect it. When a critic of the regime isn't safe even a thousand kilometers away, the message isn't addressed only to the dead man. It's addressed to everyone who still draws, writes, or speaks. The question is who reads the sign next - and whether there's any safe distance at all from a power that can't take being mocked.