Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who daringly interrupted a live TV broadcast to protest her country’s invasion of Ukraine, was briefly detained by Russian authorities for a second time over the weekend.
After friends posted that she was picked up in Moscow by police while riding and then bundled into a van, news of her arrest broke on Telegram Sunday.
According to The Moscow Times – which has been operating in exile out of Amsterdam since March – Ovsyannikova was released three hours later, having been charged with “discrediting”The Russian army
Ovsyannikova was an editor at the government-controlled Pervyy Kanal at the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Distressed by the images out of Ukraine, she interrupted the channel’s main evening news bulletin on March 14 and held up a poster protesting the war and calling on viewers not to “believe the propaganda”.
She was briefly detained and fined $527 (30,000 Russian rubles). She fled Russia soon after. She was previously living in Russia and working as a temporary employee for German newspaper Die Welt.
After her ex-husband filed a lawsuit seeking sole custody in Moscow, the journalist declared on her Instagram that she would be returning to Russia to seek access to her two children.
Ovsyannikova stated in the post that she might be arrested upon her return, but despite these concerns, she has intensified her public campaign against war after her return.
On Friday, July 15, she held a second solo protest near the Kremlin. Video footage shows her holding a placard with slogans and ranting against President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. At her feet, lay two life-like children’s dolls covered in red dye.
The Moscow Times reported that her new charges were not related to her attendance at the trial last week of Ilya Yashin (Russian opposition figure).
Ovsyannikova was one of hundreds of journalists and activists supporting the opposition who showed support by demonstrating outside the courtroom.
Yashin was accused of spreading false information about Russia’s military after he spoke out on YouTube about alleged war crimes committed by the Ukrainian government in Bucha.
Since the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine, there has been a massive crackdown on anti-war protests throughout Russia.
According to OVD, a Russian independent human right watchdog, 15,000 people were detained since February 24th. At least 178 are currently in court and could face lengthy sentences.