PARIS (AFP) - One of Russia's most prominent actresses, Chulpan Khamatova, known internationally for her role in Good Bye Lenin! (2003), has said she is in exile following the war in Ukraine.
In an interview with Russian journalist Katerina Gordeeva broadcast on YouTube on Sunday (March 20), the 46-year-old actress said she had been in the Latvian capital Riga for several weeks.
"I was on holiday when the war started," she said.
"I thought at the start that I would just wait, then I signed the petition against the war and then it was made clear to me it would be undesirable for me to go back. I know I am not a traitor. I love my motherland very much."
Khamatova, one of Russia's leading actresses, starred in the hit Good Bye Lenin! about the end of the Cold War in East Germany.
She also had a role in The White Crow (2018) alongside English actor Ralph Fiennes - ironically about the defection of star ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev in the 1960s.
In order to return home, Khamatova said she would either have to stop saying a war is happening, or apologise for not supporting the military operation.
"I don't know how to ignore what I see with my own eyes and receive from my Ukrainian friends about what is happening. This would be lying to myself and the whole world and living in untruth," she said.
Trained at the Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts in Moscow, Khamatova made her film debut in 1998.
The 1999 film Luna Papa made her a star at home and won her the Best Actress award at the Russian Film Festival in Honfleur, France.
She starred in Petrov's Flu (2021) which played in competition at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
In February 2012, Khamatova appeared in a video supporting then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's candidacy to be elected again as president that year.
The move disappointed some supporters, although she later put her backing into the context of state support for her high-profile children's charity Podari Zhizn (Give Life).
Other stars have also left Russia, including one of its most celebrated ballerinas, Olga Smirnova, who quit the Bolshoi Ballet in protest at the war.
