Russian film critic Yekaterina Barabash stated Monday that she ran away to France with assistance from the media guard dog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which smuggled her out of the country.It was extremely challenging, Ekaterina Barabash, a 64-year-old Ukrainian-born reporter, told a news conference at RSFs Paris headquarters.
She faces up to 10 years in jail in Russia for spreadingfalse info about the Russian armyBarabash stated the journey to get away Russia lasted about two and a half weeks.
I arrived 3 days earlier, she stated in English, declining to share complete details for security reasons.
I am going to ask for political asylum.Barabash, who has actually written for a number of Russian outlets, including the Russian service of Radio France Internationale, was arrested in February on suspicion of spreading out false info about the armed force through social networks posts.Russian authorities were alerted to her disappearance in April when she removed her electronic monitoring bracelet.
Its someplace in the Russian forest, she stated with a smile.She stated she concealed for 2 weeks before running away and crossed the border on April 26 her birthday.
I knew that whatever would be OK.Barabash, who was born in Kharkiv when it became part of the Soviet Union, has been an outspoken critic of Moscows war.
In March 2022, she wrote on Facebook that Russia had actually bombed the country and took down whole cities to the ground.
Simply days before her arrest, she published: Hatred, hatred, hatred for those who started all this.So numerous lives have been damaged, a lot of households torn apart, she composed.
The hatred has stopped burning, stopped suffocating me it has actually hardened I will die with it.Russia criminalized criticism of its military operations abroad soon after introducing its full-scale intrusion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Authorities have since opened thousands of cases under the law, which rights groups say is being used to silence dissent.RSF also helped smuggle out Marina Ovsyannikova, the previous state television reporter who protested the war on-air in 2022.
The companies director Thibault Bruttin stated it has actually become more difficult to help reporters leave Russia considering that Ovsyannikov escaped.We are extremely relieved, he said.
Its extremely unsafe.