An anti-war demonstrator holding a sign protesting Russia’s war on Ukraine rushed onto a live news broadcast on Russian state-run television on Monday. The protester was later identified as Marina Ovsyannikova, a Channel One editor.
Video of the moment was shared on Twitter by Yaroslav Conway, who describes himself as the head of the Libertarian Party of Russia. According to a translation of the footage, the protester’s sign read: “Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you here.”
Prior to the demonstration on one of Russia’s most popular channels, Ovsyannikova recorded a video accusing the network of spreading lies and propaganda. She also apologized for working there.
“Unfortunately, for the last few years I’ve been working for Channel One,” Ovsyannikova said in the video, according to a translation by The Hill. “I’ve been doing Kremlin propaganda and I’m very ashamed of it — that I let people lie from TV screens and allowed the Russian people to be zombified.”
“We didn’t say anything in 2014 when it only just began. We didn’t protest when the Kremlin poisoned Navalny. We just silently watched this inhuman regime. Now the whole world has turned away from us, and ten generations of our descendants won’t wash off this fratricidal war,” she continued, adding that her father was Ukrainian.
Ovsyannikova has reportedly been arrested and fined by Russian authorities.
“The girl who came into the frame during the live broadcast of the Vremya program on Channel One with an anti-war poster is Maria Ovsyannikova, an employee of the channel,” Conway tweeted. “After appearing on the air, the girl was detained. Now she is in the Ostankino police department, Ovsyannikova’s friends report this.”
Russian authorities have arrested thousands of peaceful protesters taking part in anti-war demonstrations across Russia since the start of the country’s conflict with Ukraine, Human Rights Watch reported earlier this month.
The human rights group accused Russia of using “excessive force” against peaceful protesters and inflicting “abuse amounting to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment, on those in custody.”
OVD-Info, a leading human rights NGO in Russia, said more than 13,000 people have been detained over the last several weeks for speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Russian authorities continue to deny people the right to freedom of assembly and stifle the voices of those who disagree with Russia’s war in Ukraine,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The escalating police violence illustrates the length to which Russian authorities will go to intimidate and silence dissent.”
