It was a little over three months ago, on March 14. Marina Ovsiannikova, of Russian television Channel One, enters the set of the JT brandishing behind the presenter a sign against the war led by her country in Ukraine. The images go around the world. The journalist was the surprise guest, this Tuesday, June 21 in Berlin, of a women’s forum meeting ahead of the G7. She talked about her situation.
With our correspondent in Berlin, Pascal Thibault
Marina Ovsiannikova did not expect what happened to her for three months. The one who was initially perceived as a heroine after her brilliance is today rejected by many.
►Read again: A Russian journalist opposed to the war in Ukraine interrupts the country’s main news
By the Russian regime and its supporters, who consider her a traitor; but also by opponents of Vladimir Putin, and by Ukrainians.
The situation is absurd. In my country, they want to take away my citizenship and put me in prison; and the Ukrainian authorities forbid me to enter their territory, and also threaten me with prison, because I am for them a former Russian propagandist.
A painful situation for the journalist born in Odessa in Ukraine, of a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother. After leaving her country, threatened with a heavy sentence for people speaking of “war” to describe the invasion of Ukraine, she had to abandon her children there. And her husband sued her.
In Berlin, Marina Ovsiannikova was first recruited by the Springer media group. But his recent trip to Ukraine turned into a fiasco, as the local hostility towards him was significant.
► Listen again: Marina Ovsiannikova, the dissonant voice of the Russian media
In Germany, Springer renounced his services. A prize that was supposed to be awarded to him was not. The Women’s Forum for Economy and Society therefore invited Marina Ovsiannikova this Tuesday to pay tribute to her courage.