Last month, Ovsyannikova protested by holding an anti-war banner live on Russian television. Ovsyannikova, 43, was detained and fined by a Russian court and made headlines in the world press. A German media outlet has hired dissident Russian journalist Ovsyannikova as a reporter. It has been announced that Ovsyannikova will work for the company that also owns the Die Welt newspaper, which reports from Ukraine and Russia.
Ovsyannikova will now work as a freelance reporter for Die Welt, writing for the newspaper and contributing to a TV news channel owned by Die Welt.
Ovsyannikova said of Die Welt that it “represents what is now fiercely defended in Ukraine by the brave people on the ground: freedom.”
After her protest in March, Ovsyannikova said she was prevented from sleeping for two days and questioned for 14 hours, and then fined 30,000 rubles for an anti-war video message she posted online.
In the video, he urged the Russian people to protest the war, saying they have the power to “stop all this madness”.
After the protest, the journalist resigned from his post as editor of the Russian state-controlled Channel One and announced that he would not accept the offer of asylum in France because he wanted to stay in Russia despite fears for his safety.
Ovsyannikova could face further prosecution under Russian law, serving years in prison under a new penal code that makes it a crime to spread “fake news” about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia recently made it illegal to call the war an “invasion”, and Russian state-controlled news outlets have told them to describe the war as a “special military operation” instead.