A Russian court on Thursday ordered the arrest of Romanian journalist Mircea Barbu, a war correspondent, on accusations of illegally entering the country and reporting on the Ukrainian incursion in the Russian province of Kursk.
Mircea Barbu reported in August for the HotNews.ro Romanian news site. Two U.S.journalists were also charged then with illegally crossing the border.
On Thursday, Russian news agency Interfax, said the Leninsky court in Kursk had ordered the arrest in absentia of a Romanian journalist for illegal border crossing.
“Romanian citizen Mircea Barbu, together with unidentified persons from the territory of Ukraine, entered the Russian Federation with the objective of reporting on the Ukrainian invasion of August 6, 2024 in the Sudja district of the Kursk region,” the Russian court statement said.
He potentially faces up to five years in prison in Russia.He can be arrested if he enters Russian territory or authorities or extradited from a third country, the court said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Russian authorities earlier this month to stop harassing international reporters after the Federal Security Service (FSB) filed criminal charges against the three journalists on September 27 for allegedly crossing the Russian border illegally from Ukraine.
It was not immediately clear whether the court made a similar ruling on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Europe correspondent Kathryn Diss and ABC camera operator Fletcher Yeung, both U.S. citizens.
Responding to the development, Barbu said: “From today on, it will be infinitely more complicated to travel and carry out my job,”he said in a Facebook post.
- “It’s official! Today, a court in Russia convicted me, in absentia, for my reporting from Kursk. I don’t know exactly what the punishment is, only a few minutes ago I read the news on Interfax. All I know is that now the Russians have officially put me on the internationally wanted list, which means that, from now on, it will be infinitely more complicated to travel and do my job.
- I’d be lying if I said I’m not worried. Or that it is easy to make such decisions. But, ironically, when I read the news about my conviction, I was listening to Navalny’s book on my headphones, on the subway. The words of the dissident, written from the Russian gulag, echo in my mind:
- “The only moments in our lives that really matter are when we do the right thing, when we don’t have to look at the table, but we can raise our heads and look into each other’s eyes. Nothing else matters.”
- Far be it from me to think of comparing myself or victimizing myself. I knew exactly what I was doing and why I was doing this job from the first moment I crossed the border into Russia with the Ukrainian army. But, at a time like this, the thoughts of people who fought infinitely more and more courageously for freedom are closer to my soul than any discussion about visas, imaginary lines and stamps on the travel sheet,” he wrote.
