Russian Woman Behind On-Air War Protest Reportedly Escapes House Arrest – Marina Ovsyannikova, the former state TV editor who interrupted a news show to protest against the Ukraine war, has apparently escaped house arrest and is now on Russia’s wanted list.
In March, 44-year-old Ovsyannikova, who was born in Ukraine, received international attention when she stormed into the studio of her former employer, Channel One, to oppose the Ukraine war during a live news broadcast while holding a sign that read “no war.” For ignoring protest laws, she was fined 30,000 roubles (£460) at the time.
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Ovsyannikova continued to protest against the war and was charged with spreading false information about the Russian army in August for waving a sign stating “Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists” during a solo demonstration on the Moskva River embankment opposite the Kremlin. She was subsequently placed under house arrest until trial, and if proven guilty, she faced up to 10 years in prison.
Saturday, Ovsyannikova’s ex-husband said that she and her little daughter escaped house arrest. “Last night, my ex-wife left the place that the court assigned her, and disappeared with my 11-year-old daughter in an unknown direction,” Igor Ovsyannikov, who is employed at the state-run news outlet RT, said. Ovsyannikova’s whereabouts are unknown and she did not immediately react to a request for comment. On Monday, she was added to the interior ministry’s online list of fugitives, accompanied with an image.
Since the commencement of the war in Ukraine, Russia has begun an unprecedented crackdown on protesters, independent news sources and international social media networks. In early March, the president, Vladimir Putin, signed off on a severe rule imposing a jail penalty of up to 15 years for spreading purposely “fake” news about the military, in effect criminalizing any public criticism of the war.
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Hundreds of top Russian independent journalists and activists have departed the country, fearing a wave of government repression. But the war in Ukraine also resulted in a continuous trickle of resignations from Russia’s strictly controlled state-run television outlets. Last month, Zhanna Agalakova, a former Channel One newsreader who at the time of her resignation in March was the station’s correspondent in Paris, stated she was returning the two state medals she earned from Putin for her service at the channel.
