Russian journo Marina Ovsyannikova, who protested Ukraine war on live TV, returns from exile, detained
A Russian journalist who had staged a protest against the Ukraine war on live state television in March, was briefly detained on Sunday, news agency Reuters reported.
Marina Ovsyannikova said she had gone for a walk with the dogs and as she stepped out of her house, people in uniform approached her. She then claimed to be sitting at the Krasnoselsky ministry of internal affairs, referring to a police station in Moscow district. Three hours later, Ovsyannikova said she was released.
The Best Tip to Traveling When You Have a Small Budget
The journalist, who shot into limelight after bursting into a studio of Russian state TV, her then employer, to denounce the Ukraine war during a live news bulletin, was hailed as a hero in the West. Here are 5 things to know about her.
1. Marina Ovsyannikova was born to a Russian mother and a Ukrainian father in Odesa. Ovsyannikova spent a large part of her childhood in Grozny, the capital of the breakaway province of Chechnya. The 43-year-old journalist was working as an editor at Russia’s Channel One television.
2. In March, Ovsyannikova grabbed headlines across the world when she barged into the set of its of its flagship Vremya (Time) evening news holding a hand-made poster reading “No War” in English.
3. She was detained and questioned for 14 hours before being released and ordered to pay a fine of 30,000 rubles ($280). German media outlet Welt hired Ovsyannikova as a correspondent in April, AFP reported. But a spokeswoman for Die Welt told AFP that Ovsyannikova is no longer working for the newspaper.
4. She returned to Russia earlier this month, writing on Facebook that she was forced to return to defend her parental rights in court against her husband. In early June, Ovsyannikova travelled to Ukraine with the intention of reporting on the war for Russian media. “I wanted to show Russian people what’s really happening in Bucha… to explain to Russian people what’s really happening in Ukraine, maybe record an interview with (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky,” she said.
5. Her detention followed July 15 social media posts in which she is seen with a poster calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a murderer and his soldiers fascists. “How many more children must die before you will stop?” the poster read, Reuters reported.
(With AFP, Reuters inputs)
