A Moscow TV editor who hosted a live broadcast protesting the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine said on Sunday that the conflict is “Putin’s war, not [the] Russian People’s War.
Journalist Marina Ovsyannikova ran onto the set of Russia’s main state news program last week carrying anti-war posters “NO WAR” and “Don’t believe the propaganda. Here they lie to you”, in English and Russian.
The host of the Channel One TV channel was broadcasting the news at that time.
Ovsyannikova was charged with an “administrative offense” and fined about $280, at least for now.
She then appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos to tell the world that the Russians don’t support the war.
“As the war started, I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep,” Ovsyannikova said. “What we showed in our programs was very different from what happened in reality.
“The propaganda on our state channels has become more and more distorted. The Russian people are really against the war. This is Putin’s war, not [the] Russian People’s War.
Ovsyannikova said she and her colleagues were shocked when the war broke out and that she knew she had to do something a week after the TV channel went on the air.
Marina Ovsyannikova was charged with an “administrative offense” and fined approximately $280 for publicly protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. AFP via Getty Images
Last week, Ovsyannikova ran onto the set of Russia’s main state news program with anti-war posters “NO WAR” and “Don’t believe the propaganda. Here you are being lied to. AFP via Getty Images
Ovsyannikova called the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “war of Putin” and not of the Russian people. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
“I could show the Russians that this is just propaganda, expose that propaganda and maybe encourage some people to oppose the war,” she said of her decision to storm the set.
Ovsyannikova urged more Russians to speak up and express their disagreement.
“I was hoping my performance would somehow help people change their minds,” she said.
Ovsyannikova said the war was riddled with Putin propaganda, which she hoped to expose and draw attention to. SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images
The TV editor is apparently still in Russia and, worried about the safety of her children, she said she refuses to seek asylum elsewhere because “I am a patriot; I want to live in Russia. My children want to live in Russia.”
The protest, according to my mother, was a “spontaneous decision” born of deep disappointment and “dissatisfaction with the current situation that had been building up for many years.”