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00:00From Moscow to Paris, the daring escape of a Russian journalist critical of the invasion of Ukraine.
00:0564-year-old Ekaterina Barabash tore off her electronic bracelet before making the 2,800-kilometer journey out of Russia.
00:15She'd faced up to 10 years in prison at her upcoming trial.
00:18France 24's Catherine Norris Trent went to the headquarters of Reporters Sans Frontières, and you met with Ekaterina Barabash.
00:27Yeah, we sat down together for about half an hour and had a chat about her ordeal, her arrest, and her escape from Russia.
00:37Today was the first time she'd been seen in public since she went off the radar in Moscow after her court appearance there in February when she was sentenced to house arrest.
00:48But she told me she feared that she would be sent to jail.
00:52And so with the help of RSF, Reporters Sans Frontières, Reporters Without Borders, and other activists, a whole team of volunteers, she told me,
01:02she managed to get out in a journey which lasted some two and a half weeks through various countries.
01:09Now, she wasn't giving any details of that escape route for obvious reasons.
01:14It could compromise people's security, and it could actually prevent other people from escaping if they should wish to do so.
01:22But she did talk a bit about the conditions under which it was done.
01:26She had an electronic ankle bracelet which she had to wear at home.
01:30It didn't have a tracker, but it checked that she was in the confines of her apartment.
01:35It would send an alarm to the secret services if she stepped out.
01:39Well, she did so. She fled in a taxi and then got at a meeting point with another car.
01:43And then she sawed off her own ankle bracelet, this woman, 64 years old, and threw it out of the window into the forest
01:49before undertaking various stages of this clandestine journey in disguise, always fearing she would be arrested.
01:58At one point, RSF lost touch with her. They thought she'd been arrested.
02:03They feared she'd been killed.
02:04So take a listen to her talking about how she made this escape journey.
02:09It was very dangerous, it was frightening, because the cameras are everywhere.
02:18And we didn't know if they sent the instructions to the local police.
02:27And yes, it was frightening.
02:28And sometimes it was difficult physically, because I had to make many, many, many kilometers through the forest with my backpack.
02:44Sometimes I didn't have any apartment to sleep on the night.
02:53I had to sleep under the sky.
02:57So she arrived in Paris a few days ago, at the end of last week.
03:02And this has been the first time that her whereabouts have been known.
03:07She is going to be asking for political asylum here in France.
03:10She's going to be asking for political asylum.
03:12She said it was a difficult decision for her.
03:14Mother is 96, and presumably she may never see her again.
03:19And yet she says that she preferred this escape to the prospect of jail.
03:26Yes.
03:26Can you imagine making that decision?
03:29She had written posts on Facebook.
03:31She's basically a culture journalist, a film critic most of the time.
03:34But she was also outspoken about Russia's war in Ukraine.
03:38She herself was born in Ukraine.
03:39Her son lives in Kiev.
03:41This is a divided family in terms of location.
03:45So she was an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine.
03:47And she posted pictures of damaged buildings.
03:50She talked about Russian strikes.
03:51She talked about the killings.
03:53And so she was arrested.
03:56No surprise, really.
03:58She wasn't surprised about this.
03:59But she said she had to speak out.
04:01And then she made this decision.
04:02She was surprised, she said.
04:04She thought she was lucky when she got house arrest.
04:06But she thought, she knew, she said that prison was coming.
04:09And so, yeah, she lived with her 96-year-old mother.
04:13And they chose to separate, knowing that she will probably never see her mother again.
04:19But she told me she thought that was a better life than in prison.
04:25And her mother agreed with that because she said, you know, she was even ready to take her own life rather than go to prison.
04:33Take a listen.
04:34Russian prison, it's worse than death.
04:39You know, it was then death.
04:44And that's why I thought if they had, I don't know, I didn't know the rules, how it is happening.
04:52Maybe I thought that maybe they would come to me before the court and bring me to the jail.
05:00So, I thought that I would, I would get poison.
05:04I tried, I began looking for some poison because Norway to the prisons, no, Russian prison, no, no, no, for five or seven years.
05:18So, she's saying there she was actually looking for a way out, which included even going so far as to poison herself rather than go to prison because she feared the treatment that she would receive there and said that, well, she knows she would prefer death.
05:35All right, we saw those two clips of her.
05:36How did she appear to you?
05:38You know, it's remarkable.
05:39She was in a remarkably good mood.
05:42She was laughing off questions about how dangerous this journey was when people asked her, you know, weren't you afraid?
05:49And she laughed and she smiled.
05:51She was bubbly.
05:52She's a very outgoing person.
05:55She was friendly.
05:55Lots of journalists asking her her questions about her ordeal.
06:00I don't know if it hasn't fully sunk in yet.
06:02She was physically tired.
06:04I asked her if she was planning to meet up with her son, who she hasn't seen for more than three years because he's in Kiev, he's in Ukraine.
06:11And she sighed.
06:14And then she, this was a moment when, which was difficult for her, she said she'd hoped to, she'd try and arrange that.
06:19But because she has a Russian passport, it's going to be very, very difficult for her to get permission to go there.
06:25But she's hoping at some point that that can become possible further down the line.
06:29All right.
06:29Ekaterina Barabesh forced in a way to choose between her mother and her son in this instance.
06:35Catherine Norris Trent, many thanks for that.