Live protest: Russian journalist interrogated for 14 hours

Marina Ovsyannikova talks about the 14-hour interrogation that followed her anti-war rally on live news.

After a trial, the editor of the state-owned Channel One was fined 30,000 rubles ($280) and sent home.

Ovsyannikova was detained after she ran out to the set on Monday with a “No War” placard. After the arrest, writes air forcereferring to the words of the journalist, she was interrogated for 14 hours, while she did not sleep and did not receive legal support.

Ovsyannikova pleaded not guilty to organizing an unauthorized public event. Before the rally with a poster, she called on fellow citizens to protest against the war, saying that only society is able to “stop all this madness”: “Do not be afraid of anything. They won’t put us all in.”

It is not yet known if she will face charges related to her live protest (the fine was imposed for the video message). It is possible that she will be prosecuted under a new criminal law that prohibits calling Russia’s military actions in Ukraine an “invasion”, or for “spreading fake news” about the conflict, the newspaper writes.

After the trial ended, Ovsyannikova told reporters that she needed to rest: “The interrogation lasted more than 14 hours, I was not allowed to contact family or friends, I was denied access to a lawyer.” She emphasized in English that she had come up with the idea of ​​the protest alone:

“It was my anti-war decision. I made this decision myself because I don’t like that Russia started this invasion. It’s really terrible.”

For several hours, the lawyers did not know about the whereabouts of Marina Ovsyannikova. Only after the appearance in the press of her photo together with lawyer Anton Gashinsky, it became clear that she was in court.

In her video message, which quickly went viral on the Internet, the woman said that the whole world had turned its back on Russia, and “the next 10 generations will not be able to cleanse themselves of the shame of this fratricidal war.” Colleagues at work, channel employees, were sincerely surprised by the actions of Ovsyannikova, who has two children. They say that she has always been far from politics and talked mainly about “children, dogs and home.”

Emmanuel Macron has already said that France is ready to make every effort to offer the journalist protection and asylum. He says that he will raise this topic in a conversation with Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called her actions an act of “hooliganism.” And the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine published recommendations from Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar on how to respond to when the Russians oppose the war and Putin – it is recommended not to believe them, quotes “The country”:

“Do not look for an enemy in the information field who are loyal to Ukraine, who sympathize, understand and condemn the actions of the Russian authorities. Such persons can be created artificially or used … Do not believe in protests on the central Russian channel, the programming of which is written in the Kremlin.”

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