Well-known journalist and editor-in-chief of Republic, Dmitryi Kolezev, from Yekaterinburg announced he had left Russia due to mounting political pressures. He said that people like him will be “unwanted” in Russia and cited fears about being jailed. “I understand that at this moment and in the near future, the state considers people like me ‘undesirable’. I want to keep writing and saying what I think, but maybe for a while it’s better to do it by changing geography”, he said. “You have to either go and do something that will probably put you in jail, or leave.”