A Crimean blogger who has strongly criticized Russia's annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine has left the region due to concerns about her safety.
Yelizaveta Bohutskaya, who has been a contributor to RFE/RL's Crimean desk under the name Liza Bohutski, told the Ukraine-based Investigative Journalism Center on September 9 that she had left Crimea "temporarily."
Bohutskaya was detained for six hours after police had searched her home in Simferopol on September 8.
She said police were accompanied by security troops with assault rifles who opened fire in her yard and injured one of her dogs.
Bohutskaya said that while in custody, she was warned that her blogs and online articles are anti-Russian and might be considered extremist.
She said her husband and children remain in Crimea and she hopes the authorities will leave them alone.
