Russian film critic Yekaterina Barabash announced on Monday that she had escaped to France with assistance from the media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which facilitated her exit from the country.
“It was extremely challenging,” stated Barabash, a 64-year-old journalist of Ukrainian descent, during a press conference at RSF’s headquarters in Paris. She is facing a potential prison sentence of up to ten years in Russia for allegedly disseminating “false information” about the Russian military.
Barabash revealed that her escape took approximately two and a half weeks. “I arrived three days ago,” she disclosed in English, opting not to provide specific details for safety reasons. “I intend to seek political asylum.”
Having contributed to multiple Russian media platforms, including the Russian branch of Radio France Internationale, Barabash was detained in February on charges of spreading “false information” regarding the military through her social media activities.
Russian officials became aware of her disappearance in April when she removed her electronic monitoring device. “It’s somewhere in the Russian forest,” she quipped with a smile.
She recounted that she concealed herself for two weeks prior to her escape, successfully crossing the border on April 26—her birthday. “I was confident that everything would turn out fine.”
Originally from Kharkiv, which was part of the Soviet Union at the time of her birth, Barabash has been a vocal opponent of Moscow’s military actions. In March 2022, she expressed on Facebook that Russia had “devastated the country” and “destroyed entire cities.” Just before her arrest, she wrote: “Hatred, hatred, hatred for those who initiated all this.”
“So many lives have been shattered, and countless families have been torn apart,” she reflected. “The hatred that once consumed me has ceased; it has hardened … I will carry it with me until my end.”
Following the onset of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin made it a criminal offense to criticize its military actions overseas. Since then, authorities have initiated thousands of legal cases under this law, which human rights organizations contend is being deployed to quash opposition.
RSF also played a role in helping Marina Ovsyannikova, a former state TV journalist who protested the war live on air in 2022, escape the country.
Thibault Bruttin, the director of RSF, noted that aiding journalists in leaving Russia has become increasingly difficult since Ovsyannikova’s escape.
“We are very relieved,” he commented. “It’s exceptionally perilous.”
