A lawmaker from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk who made critical comments pertaining to Russia’s war in Ukraine has reportedly fled the country after prosecutors opened a criminal investigation.
Khelga Pirogova, an independent lawmaker, left Russia on July 22, the same day that Investigative Committee chief Aleksandr Bastrykin ordered prosecutors to open a criminal case, local media reported.
She may have fled to neighboring Kazakhstan, local media speculated. Pirogova did not answer her phone when contacted by RFE/RL. Her lawyer, Yegor Solunin, said he has yet to receive material from prosecutors.
Pirogova was briefly detained by police on July 22 following a charity event in support of local residents who took part in protests organized by jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny in January 2021.
The protesters have been ordered by a court to pay compensation to the police.
Pirogova gained attention beyond her region when her comments on an article in Russian state media went viral.
The lawmaker said she was disgusted by the article, which quoted relatives of Siberian soldiers killed in Ukraine thanking local government officials for competently organizing funerals.
In her Twitter post, Pirogov said “not one normal person” would calmly accept the death of a relative and be pleased with a well-organized funeral.
"Instead of the lives of their relatives, they managed to have a normal table with food organized at the funeral," Helga Pirogova said in her post. “It's just unspeakable, I want to revive them all, slap them hard on the cheeks and let them go back to the graves” to grieve.
Pirogova later deleted her post, saying it was an emotional reaction to the article.
Since launching his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin has clamped down hard on any dissent against the war.
In March he signed bills in law that effectively criminalize any criticism of the war or actions of Russian soldiers.
Russian citizens face up to 10 year in prison for distributing "false news" about military operations and up to 15 years for “discrediting” the nation’s armed forces.
A Russian court earlier this month sentenced Aleksei Gorinov, a Moscow city lawmaker, to seven years in prison after finding him guilty of “knowingly distributing false information” about Russia’s military.
At a meeting of the Moscow city legislature in March, Gorinov criticized the Russian invasion, suggesting it was inappropriate to be holding a local children’s art competition while in Ukraine “every day children are dying.”
Gorinov is the first elected official in Russia to be convicted under the new law.