#Russian #journalist #arrested #protesting #operation #Ukraine
Russian police on Sunday arrested journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who interrupted a live TV show in March to denounce military action in Ukraine, her lawyer said.
No official statement was made, but her arrest comes days after 44-year-old Ovsyannikova demonstrated alone near the Kremlin, holding a placard criticizing Russian intervention in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin.
“Marina was arrested,” her entourage said in a message published on the journalist’s Telegram account. “There is no information as to where she is.”
The message included three photos of her being led to a white van by two police officers after she was apparently stopped while cycling.
Her lawyer, Dmitri Zakhvatov, confirmed her arrest to the Ria-Novosti news agency and said he did not know where Ovsyannikova had been taken.
“I assume it’s related to their protest in one way or another,” he added.
In March, Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One TV, stormed onto the set of his flagship evening news show Vremya (Time) with a poster that read “No War” in English.
On Friday, Ovsyannikova posted photos of herself on Telegram, showing her near the Kremlin and holding a protest poster denouncing the deaths of children and denouncing Putin as a “murderer.”
Statements of this nature expose her to criminal prosecution for publishing “false information” about and “denigrating” the army, offenses carrying hefty prison terms.
Ovsyannikova shot to international fame overnight in March when she staged her live TV protest. Pictures of her interrupting the broadcast went around the world.
She was briefly detained and then fined, but although a number of international observers praised her protest, it was not widely recognized by the Russian opposition.
Some critics said she worked for years for a channel, Pervy Kanal, which they say is effectively a Kremlin mouthpiece.
In the months following her March protest, Ovsyannikova spent some time abroad, including a brief stint with the German newspaper Die Welt.
In early July, she announced she would return to Russia to settle a dispute over custody of her children.
Social Tags:
#Russian #journalist #arrested #protesting #operation #Ukraine
