“The Russian people are really against the war,” she said yesterday in an interview with ABC News† “It is Putin’s war, not the war of the Russian people.”
Didn’t sleep or eat
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the journalist, Marina Ovshannikova, has not been able to sleep or eat, she told the US news channel. With her protest, she had shown the world “that Russians are against the war,” she explained.
At the same time, she wanted to make it clear to her compatriots that they should ‘think critically and critically analyze the information presented to them’.
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Ovshannikova has been admired worldwide for her exceptional protest over the past week. She interrupted a live broadcast of the main Russian state broadcaster by walking into the studio screaming ‘stop the war’. “Don’t believe the propaganda, they’re lying to you” read a protest sign that she could display behind the newscaster for a few seconds.
She tells ABC News that with her action she wanted to expose ‘propaganda’ because her employer, the state broadcaster, is ‘spreading lies’ about the war.
Put in prison
After her action, she was imprisoned and interrogated for 14 hours, after which she was fined 30,000 rubles (almost 260 euros). She has since been released, but faces 15 years in prison for spreading ‘false information’.
Last week Ovshannikova resigned at the state broadcaster she worked for. She is refusing the political asylum France has offered her and says she will remain in Russia, despite the fact that she “has ruined her family’s life with her action,” she told France 24 last week.
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