google.com, pub-3998556743903564, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 Russian Journalist Flees To France After Criticising Ukraine War

Russian Journalist Flees To France After Criticising Ukraine War

By Heraldviews

Ekaterina Barabash, a Russian journalist facing up to ten years in prison for criticising Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, has escaped to France with the help of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). 

The 64-year-old film critic, who was under house arrest in Russia, described her two-and-a-half-week flight as “difficult” and admitted she had considered suicide rather than endure imprisonment. “Russian prison is worse than death,” she told AFP in Paris.

Ms Barabash was detained in February after attending the Berlinale film festival, accused of spreading “false information” about Russia’s armed forces in social-media posts. One such post condemned the bombing of Ukrainian cities, while another expressed “hatred for those who started all this.” After removing her electronic monitoring bracelet—now abandoned “somewhere in the Russian forest”—she crossed the border on her birthday, April 26th. RSF, which previously aided the escape of protest journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, called her ordeal a “message of hope” for other dissident reporters.

The Kremlin has intensified its crackdown on press freedom since invading Ukraine, criminalising criticism of the war. Ms Barabash, whose son lives in Ukraine and whose 96-year-old mother remains in Moscow, plans to seek asylum in France and resume work with Radio France Internationale. RSF’s director acknowledged the increasing difficulty of such operations but stressed: “There is no despair, no inevitability.” For now, Ms Barabash remains under French protection—and determined to rebuild her life. “I don’t know anyone who has died of starvation in exile,” she said.


With additional AFP report

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