Yevgenia Albats, the editor in chief of The New Times magazine, has left Russia amid the ongoing crackdown on independent media in the country.
Albats said during a stream on her YouTube channel on September 5 that she will now be teaching at a university in New York.
"Why did I at last make this decision [to leave Russia]? I will tell you: because I already had four administrative cases against me, I was labeled a "foreign agent," and it became clear to me that just three or four weeks were left before I will be arrested," Albats said.
Albats said that she discussed the decision to leave Russia with jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who, she said, supported the idea.
In late July, the Justice Ministry added Albats to the registry of "foreign agents."
Since Russia started its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February, Albats was ordered to pay hefty fines twice for her magazine's independent coverage of the war in Ukraine, which courts called the distribution of fake information about Russia's armed forces.
Many journalists, activists, politicians, and other people have left Russia for other countries since Moscow started its full-scale aggression against Ukraine.
In March, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that calls for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine.
The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of "deliberately false information" about the Russian Army that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison.
It also makes it illegal "to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia" or "for discrediting such use" with a possible penalty of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia.
The threat of the law has thrown cold water on almost all independent reporting on the conflict, which the Kremlin calls a "special military operation." Those who call it a war face arrest.
