The 43-year-old burst into Russia’s most watched live news program on Monday night with a poster criticizing Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine and denouncing the “propaganda” of the government-controlled media.
Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who became an anti-war muse after denouncing the offensive in Ukraine on a pro-Kremlin news program, has turned down French President Emmanuel Macron’s offer of asylum because she “doesn’t want to leave” his country.
“I don’t want to leave our country. I’m a patriot, and even more so my son. We don’t want to leave under any circumstances, we don’t want to go anywhere,” she said in an interview. with the German magazine Der Spiegel on Wednesday evening.
Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that he was ready to offer Marina Ovsyannikova “consular protection” either at the embassy or by giving her asylum.
Sentenced to a fine
The 43-year-old made a name for herself by appearing live Monday night on Russia’s most viewed newscast on Channel One, where she is a producer, with a poster criticizing Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine and denouncing “propaganda actions.” “government-controlled media.
After her arrest, she was immediately sentenced to a simple fine and released. However, she remains at risk of criminal prosecution, including long prison terms under the terms of a recently passed law prohibiting any “false information” about the Russian military.
“This is a war against brotherly people! No sane person can accept it,” says the young woman, who was born in Odessa, Ukraine, to a Ukrainian father and Russian mother.
Marina Ovsyannikova believes that her coup “was primarily a pacifist action: it is in the interests of Russia and the world to end this war as soon as possible.”
“I also wanted to show that the Russians are also against this war, which many people in the West do not understand. Most of the smart and educated people here are against this war,” she said.
“They constantly struggle internally between their jobs and their own moral compass.”
She indicates that she prepared her actions alone without talking to her family or friends first.
“Most of the people who work on national television are very aware of what’s going on. They know only too well that they’re doing something wrong. They’re not hardened propagandists, often anything but that!”, she adds.
“They constantly struggle internally between work and their own moral compass (…) But colleagues have to feed their families, they know that in the current political climate they will not find another job,” clarifies the journalist, who says: “glad” that several Russian journalists from public channels have resigned in recent days, opposing restrictions on information.