PARIS (AP) — 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.
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 kilometers (some 1,700 miles) using clandestine routes” to evade surveillance.
“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.”
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.
Barabash, 63, condemned on Monday the lack of freedoms in Russia while detailing her escape.
“There is no culture in Russia… there is no politics… It’s only war,” she said, decrying state censorship.
Barabash said the very concept of a “Russian journalist” no longer made sense. “Journalism cannot exist under totalitarianism.”
The Facebook posts that landed her in legal jeopardy were written between 2022 and 2023, lambasting Russia's actions in Ukraine.
“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.
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.”
Barabash was then put under house arrest.
On April 21, she disappeared.
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.
The hardest part was her inability to contact her 96-year-old mother, whom she had to leave behind.
“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.
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.
Barabash thanked many people and the RSF team for helping her gain freedom. Their identities were kept confidential for their protection.
The former Radio France Internationale contributor, who later worked with independent outlet Republic, hopes to seek asylum and resume work with exiled Russian-language media. She does not yet have a French work permit, but RSF says she holds a six-month visa and is in the process of regularizing her status.
“Now I’m here and I think it will not be (an) easy way to begin (a) new life. I’m not very young," she said.
Barabash joins a growing wave of Russian journalists in exile — more than 90 media outlets have fled to the European Union and neighboring countries since the war began, according to RSF, which ranks Russia 171st out of 180 countries in its 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
Barabash told The Associated Press that, for her, a Russian prison was “worse than death.”
“If you want to be a journalist, you have to (live in) exile," she said. If you want (to) stay in Russia as a journalist, you are not a journalist. That is it.”
At least 38 journalists remain imprisoned in Russia, said the media freedom group.
Thousands of Russians have been swept up in Russia's crackdown against dissent over the war, including journalists. According to OVD-Info, a prominent rights group that tracks political arrests, 1,240 people in Russia and annexed Crimea have faced charges because of their antiwar stance, and 389 are in custody right now.
Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Schaeffer and Alex Turnbull in Paris and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report
Russia's Ekaterina Barabash, who has Ukrainian heritage and is an outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, speaks during a press conference at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) headquarters, Monday, May 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Russia's Ekaterina Barabash, who has Ukrainian heritage and is an outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reacts during a press conference at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) headquarters, Monday, May 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Russia's Ekaterina Barabash, who has Ukrainian heritage and is an outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, speaks during a press conference at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) headquarters, Monday, May 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
