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Viktor Schenderowitsch: "We are talking about a possible arrest"
Photo:
Oleg Nikishin / Getty Images
The Russian satirist Viktor Shenderovich left Russia for fear of reprisals.
According to media reports, the 63-year-old said he feared criminal prosecution after Russian authorities had classified him as a "foreign agent".
"We're talking about a possible arrest," the AFP news agency quoted him from a Facebook post.
He didn't say where he fled to.
Schenderowitsch became famous in the 1990s with the show "Puppen", in which he portrayed Vladimir Putin as an ugly dwarf.
The show was suspended shortly after Putin came to power in 2000.
US sanctions: Putin's confidante plans libel suit
Most recently, Shenderovich said he was exposed to increased pressure from Putin's confidante Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The US has imposed sanctions on Prigozhin because, among other things, they accused him of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.
Prigozhin's Concord company announced in December a defamation lawsuit against Shenderovich for statements made by the Moscow Echo broadcaster.
A Russian court had already imposed a fine of 1180 euros on Shenderovich in favor of Prigozhin.
According to the AFP news agency, the Kremlin announced that Shenderovich's departure had nothing to do with his status as a "foreign agent."
Apparently he wanted to evade legal proceedings.
In the past year, the repression of the opposition in Russia was intensified.
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is in custody.
Shortly before the turn of the year, the judiciary ordered a ban on the human rights organization Memorial International and its human rights center.
The Russian opposition politician Dmitri Gudkov, who left the country last year, said: "We are witnessing a disaster."
ime / AFP