Prominent Russian Activist Flees to Estonia

One of Russia’s most well-known environmental activists, Yevgenia Chirikova, has fled to Estonia with her family because of "repressions against social activists in Russia".

This is what Chirikova herself told Estonia's public broadcasting agency ERR, according to The Moscow Times.

- Above all I decided to take my main weak spot — my children — out of Russia, Chirikova was quoted as saying in a report this weekend.

- Russia is a country of resources, and environmentalists are the main enemy of the stablished regime of the natural resources oligarchy, she said.

For several years, Chirikova has been one of the most vocal opponents against the construction of a highway through Moscow region forestland that activists call the "lungs of Moscow."

In 2011 the environmental activist said that Russian authorities were attempting to take her children into state custody because of trumped-up claims of abuse. Later that year U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gave her an award for "women of courage”.