MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA. Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova could be sentenced to 15 years in prison for holding up a sign hostile to the war in Ukraine in the middle of the news. Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday March 15, 2022 that he wanted to offer him asylum.
It is a heroic action in a country plagued by censorship, which arrests demonstrators opposed to the decisions of Vladimir Putin or even those brandishing a simple white sheet without inscription. In Russia, opposing power is punishable by imprisonment. Whatever, Marina Ovsyannikova decided to be heard, Monday March 14, 2022, even if it means ending up in prison. A journalist for the country’s main television channel, she burst into the middle of the news on Monday evening, brandishing a sign to denounce the war waged by Russia in Ukraine. An appearance of a few seconds which earned her to be arrested and risk prison. This Tuesday, March 15, Emmanuel Macron announced that he wanted to grant him protection.
“No war”, a sign against the war in Ukraine in the middle of Russian JT
“No to war. Don’t believe the propaganda. You are being lied to here”. These are the words written in Cyrillic on a sign held up on Monday March 14, 2022 by Marina Ovsyannikova in the middle of the television news on the main Russian news channel, Pervy Kanal. While the camera was trained on the JT presenter, the journalist burst in behind her, carrying her sign. The latter remained on the screen for a few seconds before the channel’s technical team rushed to broadcast the images of a hospital, cutting off the presenter in her tracks, who had remained impassive until then.
This is fantastic. A brave woman interrupted Russian state TVs live broadcast with a sign that says: Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. Theyre lying to you here.” It was signed: “Russians against war.pic.twitter.com/673cO668nM
—Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) March 14, 2022
15 years in prison for the Russian journalist?
Arrested and placed in police custody, she faces up to 15 years in prison under article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code punishing any “public dissemination of deliberately false information on the use of the armed forces of the Federation of Russia” according to the Russian press agency Mug, citing a police source. She must be tried in Moscow, as reported by the Russian media Novaya Gazetta.
On the sidelines of a trip, Emmanuel Macron announced, Tuesday, March 15, “to launch diplomatic steps to offer protection either at the embassy or also asylum protection. I will have the opportunity during my next meeting with the President Putin to offer this solution in a direct and very concrete way.”
A video recorded before holding up the sign
Shortly before her action Marina Ovsyannikova had recorded a video, later published on social networks, in which she explained that she was “ashamed of having allowed lies to be broadcast on television” and of having “done[t] propaganda for the Kremlin”, denouncing the invasion of Russia in Ukraine: “What is happening now in Ukraine is a crime, and the aggressor is Russia. The responsibility for this crime weighs on the conscience of one man and one only: Vladimir Putin.
In this same video, she explains the reasons for her action: “my father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian. They have never been enemies. The necklace I wear is the symbol of the need for Russia to immediately stop this fratricidal war. Our fraternal people can still make peace.”