INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A Siberian regional opposition deputy has fled to Georgia shortly after Russian authorities launched a criminal investigation against her on
funeral in an independent media article.Pirogova told the independent Mediazona news website Monday that she is now in Tbilisi, the capital
of ex-Soviet Georgia.She was scheduled to appear for an interrogation at the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, in
According to state media, authorities were set to place Pirogova on the wanted list if she did not appear for her questioning.Pirogova was
strategy.Some of her pro-Kremlin colleagues at the Novosibirsk regional assembly had publicly appealed last week for her to be prosecuted
Bastrykin.Pirogova faces up to three years in jail on charges of spreading fake news about the Russian military's actions.Russia passed a
law in March that allows jail sentences of up to 15 years for spreading what authorities determine to be false information about the
military.Thousands of Russians have been fined or face jail time for carrying out anti-war protests or making anti-war statements since the
invasion of Ukraine in late February.
