The prominent Russian journalist and free-press advocate Oleg Panfilov has moved to Tbilisi.

"The main reason for my moving to Georgia is the situation in Russia. It's impossible to live in a country where the authorities lie to you, where media lies to you, and people are afraid of them," Panfilov, who previously ran the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, told reporters.

Panfilov, a longtime critic of the Russian authorities, said he had been receiving death threats.

He took Georgian citizenship last year.

In Tbilisi, Panfilov will host a program on a new Russian-language television channel called "Kavkaz Kanal." He will also teach journalism at Tbilisi's Ilia Chavchavadze University.

Panfilov also says he hopes to found a journalism school and write a book on the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war.

-- Brian Whitmore