With her protest on Russian state TV, Marina Ovsyannikova condemned the war against Ukraine. The Kremlin accuses her of “hooliganism”. A court has now sentenced her to a fine.
“Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. You are being lied to here. Russians are against war.” – With these sentences on a poster, Marina Ovssjannikova caused a scandal on Moscow state television. After her sensational protest, the woman was fined 30,000 rubles (226 euros) in Moscow. The verdict came because Ovssjannikova had called for protests against Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine in a video, as the civil rights portal OWD-Info reported on Tuesday.
In the Russian daily news – the evening news “Vremja” of the first channel – she held the banner in front of the camera, walked back and forth while the newsreader Ekaterina Andreyeva spoke about sanctions from the West. “No to war!” shouted Ovsyannikova before the broadcast was interrupted and another report was displayed.
The process is considered an unprecedented process in the almost militarily strictly regulated state television broadcasting with pro-Kremlin and very well paid propagandists. There was no trace of the 44-year-old, who was celebrated internationally as a courageous heroine on social networks on Tuesday, for hours on Tuesday.
In the afternoon, prominent Russian journalist Alexei Venediktov published a photo of Ovsyannikova with her lawyer Anton Gashinsky in a courthouse on his Telegram channel. the star was able to verify the authenticity of the photo, which was also published in an Instagram story – possibly from another account of the journalist Ovssyannikova. The Moscow bureau chief of the “Financial Times”, Max Seddon, spread the picture via Twitter.
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Russian media reported that the TV worker was being prosecuted for organizing an unauthorized public event. You have therefore threatened a prison sentence of ten days or 30,000 rubles (226 euros) fine or up to 50 hours of community work. Her lawyer, Gaschinsky, pointed out that Ovsyannikova, as the mother of children aged 11 and 17, should not be sentenced to arrest.
At first it was feared that the editor could be convicted under a controversial new law for defaming the Russian army. Anyone who tarnishes the reputation of Putin’s armed forces with alleged or real false reports has recently been threatened with up to 15 years in prison in Russia.
EU expresses concern, Moscow speaks of “hooliganism”
The EU had also shown concern after her disappearance. “Her lawyers are not allowed to contact her,” said a spokesman for EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell. The protest is the latest example of a courageous stance that refutes the Kremlin’s lies and propaganda.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov described the incident as “hooliganism” and that the station management had to take care of it. Not even the state media could avoid reporting on it.
A video recorded before the TV appearance also spread online, in which the woman says she is ashamed of having spread Kremlin propaganda for years. “What is happening in Ukraine is a crime.” Only Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible for the aggression. She called on her compatriots to protest against the war. “It’s up to us to end all this madness.” The authorities couldn’t lock everyone up.
Ovsyannikova, who wears a necklace with the colors of the flags of Russia and Ukraine in the video, also says that she is the daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother – “and they were never enemies”. “This chain on my neck is like a symbol that Russia must stop the fratricidal war immediately and that our brother peoples can still be reconciled.”
Journalist is celebrated as a heroine
After her protest, she received a wave of recognition around the world. The recording of the scene, in which she appears behind the news anchor with a handwritten poster, was shared many times on Tuesday, including on Twitter and Telegram. “What courage really means,” wrote pianist Igor Levit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked her. He praised Russians “who try to tell the truth”.
And the camp of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny also thanked her after she criticized in the video that the Kremlin opponent had been poisoned. To this day, the Kremlin and Russia’s state television deny that Navalny barely survived an assassination attempt with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020.
Navalny, who is in a prison camp and faces many years in prison in a controversial new trial, held Putin personally responsible for the attack with the banned chemical warfare agent.
Navalny’s team announced that they would support the TV editor. Mann wanted to take on the penalties that could be imposed on her, wrote Maria Pewtschich from Navalny’s team on Twitter on Tuesday. Russian journalists are not allowed to talk about war, only about a “special military operation”. There was still hope that it could only remain with a fine.
Source: Stern
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