“Thank you all for your support”, Ekaterina Barabash moved during a press conference this Monday, May 5 at the headquarters of Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) in Paris. The Russian journalist, anti-Putin, was exfiltrated from her country to France by the NGO. She risked being sentenced to ten years in prison for denouncing the war in Ukraine. The 63 -year -old cinema criticism had to resolve to leave her 96 -year -old mother to leave Russia. Thibaut Bruttin, CEO of RSF expressed this Monday of his “Immense relief and an immense pleasure of having it healthy and saved in Paris”.
Ekaterina Barabash had been arrested on February 25 at Moscow airport, when she came back from the Berlin International Film Festival. The journalist has been victim of the authorities several times. Leaving in Germany for the festival, she had already been retained several hours in the control of the Russian borders.
Russian authorities accuse Ekaterina Barabash of “Diffusion of false information” Against the army, via four publications on its social networks, one of which condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“So, a bunch of bastards, have you bombed Ukraine, shaved whole cities, killed a hundred children, shot down peaceful people, maintained Marioupol under blockade, deprived millions of people of a normal life, forced to go abroad?” wrote the journalist, herself from Kharkiv, Ukraine.
After his arrest, the Moscow court ordered his house arrest for two months. On April 4, the Russian Ministry of Justice described Ekaterina Barabash as“Agent from abroad”. According to RSF, this «label» East “Often used to muzzle dissident voices” as well as “Discredit journalistsNGO or simple citizens judged ”. On April 13, the sixties, normally assigned to house, disappeared. A few days later, on April 21, she was placed on the list of persons sought by the Russian federal prison service. Before reappearing in France two weeks later.
In October 2022, RSF had already organized the escape of another Russian journalist: Marina Ovsiannikova. She also incurred ten years in prison after having brandished an anti -warning sign on state television.
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