The journalist who broke into Russian state TV with a poster against the war in Ukraine appeared

After hours of worrying about the whereabouts of the Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikovaa day after she interrupted a news program on a state television channel with a poster protesting the war in Ukraine, the woman was located in a Moscow court, one of her lawyers told CNN.

Ovsyannikova’s lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, had said earlier that they do not know where the journalist was, after friends of the woman indicated that she was at a police station in Ostankino, Moscow. “We haven’t found it yet, but we’re still looking,” said the lawyer.

The lawyer later said that Ovsyannikova was placed in a Moscow court. A photo showing the Channel One journalist with another of her defenders, Anton Gashinsky, was posted on Telegram this afternoon.

Ovsyannikova is on trial today for having demonstrated illegally, according to Moscow’s Ostankino district court. The hearing is ongoing and the journalist can be sentenced to 10 days of detention, informed the judicial source. Until now, she has not been charged with the crime of publishing “false information” on the Russian army, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The Kremlin today described Ovsyannikova’s gesture as “hooliganism or pathoterism” by breaking in during the live broadcast of the Channel One newscast, Russia’s main state television channel.

Ovsyannikova, an employee of Channel One, broke into the live broadcast of the channel’s nightly news and stood behind the driver with a sign protesting the war in Ukraine, shouting slogans to the same effect. “Not to the war”, the sign said in English at the top and below it was a message in Russian below that He asked that Russian propaganda not be believed. The news quickly moved on to another scene.

OVD-Info, a Russian independent human rights group that tracks politically motivated arrests, identified the woman as Marina Ovsyannikova. Almost 15,000 people were detained across Russia during anti-war protests since February 24, according to a group count.

Ovsyannikova spoke out against the war in a video posted on the OVD-Info website. “What is happening now is a crime,” she said. “Russia is an aggressor country and Vladimir Putin is solely responsible for that aggression.”

OVD-Info reported this morning that “a pre-investigation check was initiated against the Channel One employee” and also noted that “It is still unknown where he is.”

Up to 15 years in prison

State investigators were looking today to see if could punish the journalist under a new law that carries prison sentences of up to 15 years, a police source quoted by the Russian news agency TASS said. Legislation adopted eight days after the invasion of Ukraine outlaws public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian military and prohibits the dissemination of false news or the “public dissemination of deliberately false information” about the use of the Russian armed forces.

“A preliminary investigation into Ovsyannikova is underway to determine whether her actions constitute a crime under article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code (‘Public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation’),” he said. an investigative source cited by TASS. The agency affirms that the journalist “is in custody.”

Ovsyannikova lives in Moscow and presents herself on her social networks as a news anchor and open water swimmer. At Channel One she works as director of news programs. According to Tass, the woman hails from Odessa, a Ukrainian city besieged by Russian forces.

According to the former editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow radio, Alexei Venediktov, Ovsyannikova is the mother of two children.

ANSA Agency, AP, AFP and Reuters

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