Russian state television First Channel accused journalist Marina Ovsyannikova of being a “British spy”. The Russian journalist from the same channel who had interrupted the evening news live in recent days to deny the invasion of Ukraine (video).
First Channel Deputy Director General Kirill Kleymenov accused the journalist of working for British intelligence and called the antiwar protest an act of “treason”, according to Sky News. “He betrayed his country and all of us in cold blood he added an emotional impulse is one thing, but an act of treason is quite another”.
The British Foreign Office dismissed Kleymenov’s allegations, claiming they had “no contact with Ovsyannikova of any kind. This is another lie being peddled by the disinformation machine,” he said.
Ovsyannikova was fined 30,000 rubles ($280) last week for inciting protests in the message she taped on the evening news of Channel One of Russian TV before the protest. The case of his breakin into the television studio will be dealt with separately under the new law on the criminal offense of military defamation.