Employee of the Russian state television protests live against the war
Moscow The TV worker, who interrupted the main news program of Russian state television on Monday with a protest against Russia’s war in Ukraine, is experiencing a wave of recognition around the world.
The recording of the scene, in which she appears behind the news anchor with a handwritten poster, was shared many times on Tuesday, including on Twitter. “What courage really means,” wrote the pianist Igor Levit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked her.
It is unclear where the woman is currently and how she is doing. Lawyers from the civil rights organization IWD-Info could not have contacted them more than ten hours after the protest, wrote the ex-editor-in-chief of the radio station Echo Moskwy, which was closed by the Russian state. Alexei Venediktov, on Twitter.
The woman jumped into view behind the anchorwoman during the live broadcast Monday night, holding a sign that read, “Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. Here you will be lied to” into the camera. She shouted out loud several times: “No to the war!” After a few seconds, the station switched to a video report.
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According to Russian media reports and journalists, the woman is Marina Ovsyannikova – an employee of the state broadcaster. A previously recorded video circulated online, in which she said she was ashamed of years of spreading Kremlin propaganda. “What is happening in Ukraine is a crime.”
call for protest
Only Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible for the aggression. She called on her compatriots to protest against the war. “It’s up to us to stop all this madness.” The authorities couldn’t lock everyone up.
The camp of the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny wants to support the woman. They want to take on the penalties that might be imposed on them, wrote Maria Pewtschich from Navalny’s organization FBK on Twitter on Tuesday.
In her video, recorded before the protest, Ovzyannikova wears a necklace with the colors of the flags of Russia and Ukraine and refers, among other things, to Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The wording of the video distributed online in a translation by the German Press Agency:
“What is happening now in Ukraine is a crime. And Russia is the aggressor. And the responsibility for this aggression lies only on the conscience of one person – and that person is Vladimir Putin.
My father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian – and they were never enemies. This chain on my neck is like a symbol that Russia must stop the fratricidal war immediately and that our brother peoples can still be reconciled.
In recent years, unfortunately, I have worked at Channel One and dealt with Kremlin propaganda. I am very ashamed of it now. I am ashamed that I let the TV screen lie to me. I am ashamed that I allowed Russians to be turned into zombies.
We were silent in 2014 when this all started. We didn’t come out for demonstrations when the Kremlin poisoned Navalny. We just silently watched this misanthropic regime. Now the whole world has turned its back on us. And ten more generations of our descendants will not be able to wash away the shame of this fratricidal war. We, the Russian people, can think and are clever. It’s up to us to stop all this madness. Go demonstrate. fear nothing. You can’t lock us all up.”
In Russia, alleged false information about the Russian armed forces faces up to 15 years in prison. The war in Ukraine is described in the state media as a “military special operation”.
More: Read the current developments in the Ukraine war in the live blog