The Russian journalist who interrupted a television news program in March with anti-war proclamations is freed
The Russian journalist Marina Ovsianikova, who interrupted the main public television news program with anti-war proclamations last March and who was arrested this Sunday near her home, has been released this Monday, as reported by herself today on her Facebook page. . “I’m home now. Everything’s fine. It was a first warning. Now I know that you have to leave home with a bag and an identity document. I thank the neighbor who was nearby at the time. He brought me things and called my lawyer and friends, ”Ovsianikova wrote on the social network.
The reason for his arrest was his comment on the trial of opposition politician Ilia Yashin and not his protest with a poster that read “Putin, murderer”, for which it is expected that he will only face a fine. The police have opened a sanctioning process against him for which he could receive a sanction of 30,000 to 50,000 rubles, between 500 and 1,000 euros at current exchange rates, according to his lawyer. The editor had published a video where she described the military actions of the Kremlin as “the worst crime of the 21st century” and predicted that its authors will sit in the future “on the bench of an international court.”
The journalist, mother of several children, had already been fined before for her appearance in March in the middle of the broadcast of the program Vremia (Time) in Pervyi Kanal, although at that time she was not tried for the crime of discrediting the Russian army, a law coined by the Government a few weeks after the attacks began, but for the infraction of holding a public event without notification. Ovsianikova’s lawyer has told the Sota outlet that the trial for the crime of defaming the armed forces, which could carry up to 15 years in prison, will take place on July 21. Ovsianikova protested again a few days ago in front of the Kremlin, and on that occasion she showed another poster where she had written “Putin is a murderer, his fascist soldiers. 352 children have died. How many more have to die for you to stop?
On March 14, Ovsianikova interrupted the live broadcast of Vremia making proclamations and brandishing a poster against the Russian military offensive in Ukraine. “Not to the war. End the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. Here they are lying to you. Russians against the war”, read the poster.
The Russian Justice found the journalist guilty for organizing or holding a public event without notification and fined her 30,000 rubles ($277). Later, Ovsianikova became a contributor to the German newspaper The worlda job he left in early July, according to the independent Russian-language portal Medusa.