The Russian protester who interrupted a news broadcast on Russian state television condemns the war against Ukraine was fined 30,000 rubles ($280) on Tuesday, a court heard, after the Kremlin denounced son act of protest as “hooliganism”.
Marina Ovsyannikova, a Channel One employeewas found guilty of flouting protest laws, the court heard. It wasn’t right away clear if she could also face other, more serious charges. His lawyer could not be reached immediately. for comment.
Ovsyannikova organized an extraordinary show of contestation on Monday night when she held up an anti-war sign behind a studio presenter reading the news on Channel One and shouted slogans condemning February 24 in Russia invasion of Ukraine.
the sign, in In English and Russian, read: “NO WAR. Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here.”
State television, which airs the Kremlin story in homes across Russia’s 11 time zones, depicts the invasion like a “special military operation,” brushing over the humanitarian crisis, the damage caused to cities and the rise death ring.
Ovsyannikova urged Russians not to get caught in by state propaganda, a message that drew praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but was quickly rebuffed in Moscow.
“As far as this woman is concerned, it’s hooliganism,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “The chain and these who are supposed to get to the bottom of this,” he told reporters, describing Channel One as a mainstay of objective and punctual news.
After the hearing, Ovsyannikova told reporters that she was exhausted, had been questioned for more more than 14 hours was not allowed to speak to her relatives and had not received with legal assistance. She said she needed to rest before commenting further.
Her protest had caused her supporters to fear that she could be prosecuted under new legislation that includes jail term of up at 15.
The law adopted eight days after the invasion of Ukraine makes public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian military are illegal and bans the propagation of false news or the “public dissemination of deliberately false information” about use of Russian armed forces.
Officials in Moscow describes Russia offensive in Ukraine as special military operation to disarm the country and prevent “genocide” against Russian speakers, a justification rejected by Ukraine and the West as a false pretext for a invasion of a democratic country.
In a video recorded before her protest, Ovsyannikova blamed Putin for son name and said: “The next ten generations of our descendants will not wash away the shame of this fratricidal war.
UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani hailed “this very courageous journalist”.
“We urge the authorities to ensure that she does not face any reprisals for exercise son right to liberty of expression,” she told a news Report in Geneva.
Nearly 15,000 people have been detained across Russia during anti-war protests since February 24, according to a tally by OVD-Info, an independent protest monitoring body group.
Shamdasani said it was not clear how numerous of these remained in detention. “We do not have access to those who are detained, unfortunately,” she said.
