A Woman Crashed Live TV To Tell Russians They're Being 'Lied To' & Risked 15 Years In Jail
"They can't imprison us all," she said.
Marina Ovsyannikova. Right: Ovsyannikova crashing a live broadcast.
A news station employee risked her career and her freedom to interrupt a live TV broadcast in Russia this week, by stepping in front of the camera with a giant "NO WAR" sign referring to Ukraine.
Marina Ovsyannikova, a journalist on Russia's state-controlled Channel One, ran onto the set of a live newscast on Monday night, in a moment that aired in Russia and later appeared on social media.
In the video, which was cut short by producers, she was seen holding an anti-war sign that read: "No war, stop the war, don't believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here."
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Ovsyannikova is an editor at the channel, and she was immediately detained after the move.
Many are now worried that she'll be thrown in jail under Russia's so-called "fake" news law put in place following the invasion of Ukraine, which punishes any negative reporting about Russia with up to 15 years in prison. Russians can't even call it a war under the law.
But her protest video got more than 9 million views on Twitter alone in the first 24 hours, and it seems like public support for Ovsyannikova was enough to win her freedom — at least for now.
Ovsyannikova was charged with organizing an unauthorized public event, to which she pleaded not guilty. She was ultimately released and given the equivalent of a $270 fine on Tuesday. She is also facing an investigation under the "fake" news law that could send her to jail for years, the Associated Press reports.
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Ovsyannikova had reportedly been planning her surprise appearance for a while, and she even recorded a video describing Russia as "the aggressor country" in Ukraine beforehand.
"The responsibility for this aggression lies with one man, that man is Vladimir Putin," she said in the video, as translated by The Guardian.
Ovsyannikova also said she is ashamed of "engaging in Kremlin propaganda" as an employee of Russia's state-controlled media, and told viewers that it's been hard for her because her dad is Ukrainian.
"[I'm] ashamed that I allowed lies to be told from TV screens and allowed the Russian people to be zombified [...] we just silently watched this inhuman regime. Now the whole world has turned away from us," she said.
The video ends with Ovsyannikova calling for the Russian people to rise up against Putin's oppression.
“Take to the streets. Do not be afraid. They can’t jail us all,” she said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Ovsyannikova for what she did in a video on Tuesday.
"I am grateful to those Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth," he said.