Earlier this month, Russian film critic Yekaterina Barabash appeared in a Moscow court, where she was sentenced to two months of house arrest for allegedly spreading lies about Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Upon leaving the courtroom, she said that her arrest had been a surprise:

“The doorbell rings and [you expect] a kind person, you open the door and there are men in masks.” But she added, “at least I’ll have two months of freedom.” [Ray Furlog, RFE/RL’s Russian Service, April 22, 2025.]

What she meant by the second comment was not entirely clear; she may have been anticipating that further charges would be forthcoming, or she might have been thinking of making a run for it. At some point earlier this month, she was designated a “foreign agent” by the Russian Justice Ministry — a commonly-used moniker for those who speak out against official government policy.

When authorities went to her home on April 13th to carry out a routine check, they found that she was not at home . . . a clear violation of her two-month sentence. On April 21st, the Russian prison agency issued a statement to that effect, after which a Moscow court changed her sentence, making her subject to a term of up to ten years in prison. A warrant has now been issued for her arrest.

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But what had she really done?

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Barabash condemned the action, saying that Russian forces had “bombed the country, levelled [sic] whole cities to the ground.” [Id.] As Russian authorities maintained that no state of “war” existed, and that the action was merely a “special military operation,” not targeting civilians, such comments were deemed illegal . . . and grounds for prosecution. But she continued to speak out, even appearing on RFE/RL’s Russian Service programs and criticizing the Kremlin’s authoritarian rule.

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Bravely, Barabash’s friends and other supporters stand behind her. Author Anna Berseneva wrote that “millions of decent people think the same as Yekaterina Barabash.” And critic Andrei Plakhov has said that she is “an honorable, principled person — a serious risk factor right now.” [Id.]

And Plakhov could not be more correct. You only have to consider the growing list of journalists and others now in prison for similar “offenses” . . . and the many who have already fled the country.

For her sake, I hope that Yekaterina Barabash has been able to do the same.

Just sayin’ . . .

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While Yekaterina Barabash remains missing, she (happily) does not qualify to be added to our list of hostages. But we continue to remember and support those who still languish in Russian prisons and penal colonies on spurious charges:

The Azov 12
David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ihar Karney (in Belarus)
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have missed.

We haven’t stopped pressing for the safe return of each and every one.

Brendochka
4/27/25