The former Russian prime minister is leaving the country

Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kachanov has left the country. “He is currently abroad, and I do not know where he is or when he will return,” party colleague Konstantin Merslikin told the Russian news agency TASS. The reasons for Kachanov’s departure abroad are unknown to Merslikin. As the war in Ukraine progressed, the Russian authorities intensified their crackdown on critics and members of the opposition.

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Kachanov was prime minister during President Vladimir Putin’s first term from 2000 to 2004. He was fired shortly before the 2004 presidential election after he criticized the imprisonment of oligarchs and Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Later, Kachanov presented himself as an opposition politician, describing Putin’s style of government as authoritarian. In the 2008 presidential election, the Electoral Commission rejected Kachanov’s candidacy, now 64, claiming that he forged the signatures of people who supported his candidacy.