A year and a half after her live protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, television journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. The reason: “spreading false information” about the army.
More than a year and a half after her sensational live TV protest against the military operation in Ukraine, Russian television journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was sentenced in absentia to eight and a half years in prison for another reason. Ovzyannikova was convicted of “disseminating false information” about the army, a Moscow court said on Wednesday.
The verdict relates to a protest in July 2022 in which Ovsyannikova demonstrated alone near the Kremlin, holding a sign criticizing military intervention in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Protest against war live on TV
In March 2022, Ovsyannikova appeared behind the news anchor during a TV station broadcast and displayed a protest sign in front of the camera – thus attracting global attention. In October 2022, the now 45-year-old escaped from house arrest with her daughter from Russia. According to information from her user account on the online service Instagram, the journalist is currently in France.
In a statement released on Tuesday before the verdict was announced, she described the charges against her as “absurd and politically motivated”. The judicial system “decided to do away with me because I’m not afraid and I call things by their names,” she said.
“Pay a high price”
“Of course I don’t admit my guilt. And I don’t deny any of my words. “I made a very difficult moral decision, but the only correct one in my life and I have already paid a high price for it,” she continued.
The repression in Russia against voices critical of the government continues at full steam. Numerous opposition representatives and ordinary citizens were sentenced to long prison terms. Tens of thousands of Russians, including opposition figures, journalists and civil rights activists, fled into exile. (APA/AFP)