A Channel One dissident employee interrupted Russia’s most-watched evening news broadcast, holding up a poster that read “No War” and “The Russians For peace” and condemned Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.
– / AFP via Getty Images
hide captions
switch captions
– / AFP via Getty Images
A Channel One dissident employee interrupted Russia’s most-watched evening news broadcast, holding up a poster that read “No War” and “The Russians For peace” and condemned Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.
– / AFP via Getty Images
A Russian woman who broadcast a live TV news report to protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is being detained and is the subject of a “pre-investigation check,” according to state media agency Tass. state media Tass.
The woman, Marina Ovsyannikova, is the editor of Channel One; she protested the war by walking behind a messenger while holding a sign that read “No War” and telling viewers they were being deceived. It also says, “Russians for peace.”
Website OVD-info, specialized in monitoring rights violations in Russia, shared a video Ovsyannikova recorded the video before the shot. In it, she said she felt ashamed for her role in helping spread Kremlin propaganda.
“I feel ashamed to let them lie from the TV screen. I am ashamed that I allowed them to deceive the Russians,” Ovsyannikova said, according to a translation by OVD-info.
She said that Ukrainians were never enemies of Russia and said that her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian. She appealed to many people to oppose the invasion.
“What is happening in Ukraine right now is a real crime. And Russia is the aggressor,” she said. “And the responsibility for this crime rests only on the conscience of one person, and that person is Vladimir Putin.”
Ovsyannikova’s protest was quickly hailed as an act of courage, as it immediately led to her arrest.
Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee is currently handling her case; any charges against her could stem from newly passed Russian laws, making it a crime to spread what the Russian government considers “fake news” about its military.
Ovsyannikova’s whereabouts in question: Website Medusa said she was at the television station, but defense attorneys were not allowed to see her. But the OVD information page says her current location is not known.
This story originally appeared on Morning version live blogs.
