Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova walked into the frame of a live news segment on Russia’s Channel One, shouting “Stop the war!” and shared an anti-war message handwritten on a poster board which said, “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.”
The broadcast quickly cut to another video and Ovsyannikova, a former editor at the network, was detained.
In the pre-recorded message shared on messaging app Telegram and translated by Meduza, which came to light after her defiant act, she said:
“What is happening in Ukraine is a crime. And Russia is the aggressor here. And responsibility for this aggression rests on the conscience of a single man: Vladimir Putin. My father is Ukrainian. My mother is Russian. And they’ve never been enemies. And this necklace I’m wearing is a symbol of the fact that Russia must immediately end this fratricidal war. And our fraternal peoples will still be able to make peace. Unfortunately, I’ve spent many of the last few years working for Channel One, doing Kremlin propaganda, and I’m deeply ashamed of this. Ashamed that I allowed lies to come from the TV screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of Russian people. We were silent in 2014 when all this had just started. We didn’t protest when the Kremlin poisoned Navalny. We just silently watched this anti-human regime at work. And now the whole world has turned its back on us. And the next 10 generations won’t wash away the stain of this fratricidal war. We Russians are thinking and intelligent people. It’s in our power alone to stop all this madness. Go protest. Don’t be afraid of anything. They can’t lock us all away.”
She recorded a message beforehand and in it, she says her father is Ukrainian. She calls for anti-war protests, says she’s ashamed about working for Kremlin propaganda, and she absolutely denounces the war.
The journalist was immediately arrested, taken into custody, and interrogated for over 14 hours.
Ovsyannikova appeared in a district court, sitting next to her lawyer, Anton Gashinsky according to human rights attorney Sergei Badamshin’s Telegram channel. The Novaya Gazeta newspaper said she faced an administrative charge of organizing an uncoordinated event.
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Badamshin says the charge stemmed not from Ovsyannikova’s on-air protest but from the video she posted on social media in which she called for Russians to protest the war in Ukraine. She could have faced up to 15 years in jail under Russia’s new “fake news” law, but Ovsyannikova was fined 30,000 rubles (about $280) for that offense, he said. She still faces the threat of other charges.
Ovsyannikova briefly spoke to journalists after her court appearance, thanking people for their support and saying that she had been subjected to a long interrogation without legal help. SHe does speak English near the end of the 58 second clip.
Russian news outlet Mediazona shared the events that allegedly transpired during her court hearing. In Russia, according to the law, administrative arrest cannot be applied to women with children under 14 years of age. Ovsyannikova has two children, both under the age of 14, which was very important for the defense attorney to note.
When asked by the court if she wanted to say anything more, after declining to retract her statement, “Yes, I want to state that it was my anti-war statement. I still believe that Russia committed a crime by attacking Ukraine. I do not retract any of my words, it was indeed an anti-war statement.”
Whether or not she will face additional charges and/or jail time remains to be seen.
The brutal and unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine has now gone on almost two months now.
