Russian journalist who escaped house arrest in Moscow arrives in Paris
PARIS — Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash resurfaced in Paris Monday following an escape from Moscow last month after being put under house arrest and facing a 10-year prison sentence for posts condemning Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Reporters Without Borders, also known by its French acronym RSF, said it helped Barabash orchestrate her getaway: She tore off her electronic monitoring tag and 'traveled over 2,800 kilometres using clandestine routes' to evade surveillance.
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'Her escape was one of the most perilous operations RSF has been involved in since Russia's draconian laws of March 2022,' said the group's director, Thibaut Bruttin, during a press conference with Barabash at RSF's Paris headquarters. 'At one point, we thought she might be dead.'
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Days after invading Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian authorities adopted legislation that outlawed any public expression about the war that went against the official government narrative.
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Barabash, 63, condemned on Monday the lack of freedoms in Russia while detailing her escape.
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'There is no culture in Russia… there is no politics… It's only war,' she said, decrying state censorship.
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Barabash said the very concept of a 'Russian journalist' no longer made sense. 'Journalism cannot exist under totalitarianism.'
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The Facebook posts that landed her in legal jeopardy were written between 2022 and 2023, lambasting Russia's actions in Ukraine.
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'So you (expletive) bombed the country, razed entire cities to the ground, killed a hundred children, shot civilians for no reason, blockaded Mariupol, deprived millions of people of a normal life and forced them to leave for foreign countries? All for the sake of friendship with Ukraine?' one post read.
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Russian authorities arrested the veteran journalist and film critic, born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, upon her return from the Berlinale film festival in February. She was charged with spreading 'false information' about Russia's military, and branded a 'foreign agent.'
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Barabash was then put under house arrest.
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Barabash said she crossed multiple borders, using covert channels coordinated by RSF, and spent two weeks in hiding and then she reached France on April 26, her birthday.
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'I just understood that I'd never see her,' Barabash said, adding they both decided that not seeing her while being free was better than a Russian prison.
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Barabash's son and grandson remain in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. She hasn't been able to see them since the war started because 'I have a Russian passport,' she said.
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