Film critic accused of spreading ‘false information’ about Russian army flees house arrest

An arrest warrant has been issued for Russian film critic Yekaterina Barabash after she failed to attend a court hearing on Monday at which a criminal case against her for spreading “false information” about the Russian military was due to begin, Russian business daily RBC has reported.

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 on Monday morning, her lawyer Mikhail Biryukov said that the defence would “make no comment on the case”, RBC reported, adding that two sources had confirmed she had been added to the police wanted list.

Barabash, 63, 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.

Since the introduction of tough laws criminalising any criticism or sharing what the state judges to be “false information” about the Russian military in 2022, there have been three high-profile cases in which individuals have broken their house arrest and attempted to flee the country.

After a criminal case was opened against TV producer Marina Ovsyannikova in July 2023 for staging a solo anti-war protest in the centre of Moscow, she managed to flee house arrest with her daughter shortly afterwards, making it safely to France. Similarly, in the same year, Arkhangelsk student Olesya Krivtsova also absconded while awaiting trial for “discrediting” the Russian military and publicly “justifying terrorism” despite being fitted with an ankle bracelet, making it safely to Lithuania.

However, when war critic Alexey Moskalyov fled house arrest before he could be pronounced guilty for spreading “false information” about the Russian military, he was tracked down within days by law enforcement officers in the Belarusian capital Minsk and forcibly returned to Russia in March 2023.