INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
long-term trip abroad," the activist wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that he was already in a place "where Russian security
forces cannot break in.""I have repeatedly said that I consider it important to stay in Russia as long as there is an opportunity to
continue creative political activity," he told The Moscow Times over text message."Now, for me personally, this opportunity has been
in Russia's 2021 parliamentary elections
him, but was "the result of flagrant and unprecedented pressure from outside.""Labeling me a 'foreign agent,' banning me from my profession
and illegally firing me from Moscow State University are only the latest steps in a campaign the authorities have been waging against me for
a year now," he wrote on Telegram when announcing his departure from Russia."Obviously, the next and final step would soon be some kind of
would have been reduced to a struggle for survival, in which there would no longer be time for political participation."Lobanov said he
This is not a vacation," he said, adding that he hoped to "work with progressive political forces in other countries in order to form a set
released after being questioned as a witness in a case against Ponomaryov.In December 2022, Lobanov was sentenced to 15 days in jail on
misdemeanor charges of disobeying police orders.
