Ukraine war: Russian anti-war protester interrupts state TV news broadcast
An anti-war protester interrupted a Russian news broadcast on Monday to denounce the war in Ukraine in a stunning move against the government's efforts to suppress any criticism of the invasion.
Video footage posted by multiple media organisations and journalists showed the woman holding a sign that read "Stop the war. Don't trust the propaganda. They lie to you here" in front of Russia's Channel One news presenter Yekaterina Andreyeva.
Pavel Chikov, a human rights lawyer in Russia, tweeted that the protester was named Marina Ovsyannikova and that she had been detained since the Monday broadcast.
OVD-Info, an independent Russian monitoring group, reported that she is an editor working at Russia's Channel One.
In a video statement that was reposted by OVD-Info, Ovsyannikova says that her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian.
"What is happening in Ukraine now is a crime, and Russia is the aggressor," she said, adding that she's ashamed of working at Channel One, "doing Kremlin propaganda".
She urged Russians to take to the streets to protest the war: "Take to the streets. Don't be afraid of anything. They cannot put us all in prison."
Channel One said in a statement to Russian media outlet RIA Novosti that it was checking on an "incident" with an "outsider" appearing in the broadcast frame.
Multiple lawyers have said they will assist in Ovsyannikova's defence following the incident but have been unable to locate her. OVD-Info said two of their lawyers arrived at a police department in Moscow but were told Ovsyannikova wasn't there.
A new Russian law passed earlier this month prohibits criticism or spreading "false news" about the war in Ukraine, with offences punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
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