Journalist and film critic Ekaterina Barabash, who was put on a wanted list in Russia after she fled house arrest, is in Paris. This was announced on Monday at a press conference in the French capital by Barabash herself. According to her, she was helped to leave Russia and move to France by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The journalist was criminally charged in Russia under an article on spreading so-called fakes about the army. She could face up to 10 years in prison. On April 21, it became known that she failed to appear in court and was put on a wanted list by the authorities.
Barabash’s whereabouts were not known until today, but her son reported on April 30 that she was safe. “She heartily thanks everyone for their support and sends her love to everyone,” Yurii Barabash, who lives in Kyiv, wrote on his Facebook page at the time.
Ekaterina Barabash was detained in Moscow on February 24, shortly after returning from the Berlin International Film Festival. The next day, she was charged with spreading fakes about the Russian army and placed under house arrest.
The reason for the criminal case against Barabash were four posts on Facebook. Three of them had already been deleted by the time of her arrest, and in another one she wrote about Russian bombings in Ukraine. These posts, according to the investigation, “contain knowingly false information about the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of another state.”
Barabash did not give details of how she managed to leave Russia. She noted that the journey was difficult and took more than two weeks.
