Marina Ovsyannikova was fined 30,000 rubles (247 euros) for violating protest laws in Moscow on March 15, 2022. AFP
A Moscow court on Tuesday (March 15) fined Marina Ovsyannikova, a Russian TV station employee who broke into a pro-Kremlin newscast on Monday to denounce the offensive in Ukraine without jailing her.
Convicted of committing an “administrative offence,” Ms. Ovsyannikova will have to pay a fine of 30,000 rubles (about 250 euros at the current exchange rate), an Agence France-Presse journalist who was present at the meeting said.
“My life has changed a lot, that’s for sure. I’m glad I expressed what I thought. More importantly, a new trend has emerged: other journalists are following my example,” Ovsyannikova said after the hearing.
In a brief press statement afterwards, she said that what she wanted most of all was to “rest” after this “very hard” ordeal.
“These are very difficult days in my life, I spent almost two days without sleep, the interrogation lasted fourteen hours. I did not have the right to talk to my relatives, I did not have access to legal assistance, and therefore I was in a very difficult situation. Today I must rest. »
Macron ready to offer ‘protection’ to journalist
Marina Ovsyannikova made a name for herself when she burst into Russia’s most watched live news program on Channel One on Monday night with a poster criticizing Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine and condemning the “propaganda” of the government-controlled media.
See also “Do not believe the propaganda”: the anti-war protest of a Russian journalist
Images of this gesture went around the world in the context of the merciless suppression of any critical voice in Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron said he was ready to offer consular “protection” to Ovsyannikova, either at the embassy or by giving her asylum.
Although she was released on Tuesday, she still faces criminal charges punishable by harsh prison sentences. Tuesday’s hearing did not focus directly on Ms. Ovsyannikova’s actions on Channel One, but on a simultaneous video broadcast on the Internet in which she denounces the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine. Her lawyer told AFP that she feared she would be tried for publishing “false information” about the Russian military, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of fifteen years in prison.