Yekaterina Barabash. Photo: Yury Barabash / Facebook
The son of fugitive Russian film critic Yekaterina Barabash has written on social media that his mother is in safety and beyond the reach of the Russian police, independent news outlet RusNews reported on Wednesday.
“Dear friends, Yekaterina Barabash is alive and well. She sends everyone love and heartfelt thanks for their support. She cannot currently access her accounts, but will contact everyone personally soon. The main thing is that she is out of danger, and has escaped the pigs,” her son, Yury, wrote in a post on Facebook, without specifying her location.
An arrest warrant was issued for Barabash on 21 April after she failed to attend a court hearing at which a criminal case against her for spreading “false information” about the Russian military was due to begin.
When Barabash, who is mainly known for her contributions to Russian independent media outlet Republic, did not appear at a scheduled court session in the Moscow region town of Pushkino, her lawyer Mikhail Biryukov said that the defence would “make no comment on the case”, adding that two sources had confirmed she had been added to the police wanted list.
Barabash, 64, was detained in Moscow in late February over a series of social media posts she had written in 2022 and 2023 that were critical of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While she was charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian military, she had her request to await trial under house arrest granted, allowing her to avoid spending months in a pretrial detention centre.
