Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who in March 2022 protested against the invasion of Ukraine by holding up a placard during a live broadcast of the TV channel Russia 1, now lives in France. She fled Russia last October, along with her daughter, a week before the start of the trial in which she would be tried for her criticism of her government. Ovsyannikova Friday he recounted her escape at a press conference in Paris organized with Reporters Without Borders, the NGO dedicated to defending freedom of the press which has helped her to leave her country and in recent months in France.
Apparently, a woman just ran onto the stage during a Russian state television news broadcast with a sign that said, “Stop the war! Don’t believe propaganda! They’re lying to you here!” pic.twitter.com/nn5XWsh4Wn
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 14, 2022
Reporters Without Borders editor Christophe Deloire had been in touch with the reporter since the day after her televised protest, having written to ask if she needed help. In the months that followed, Ovsyannikova was arrested several times, and repeatedly sentenced to pay fines for her criticism of the government, in the usual Russian way of repressing dissent. At first she fled to Germany, but then she returned to her country to settle a dispute over the custody of her two children. In September she finally contacted Reporters Without Borders through an intermediary to leave Russia permanently. It wasn’t easy because the journalist’s neighbors and family members are pro-Putin and she feared they might denounce her. “It was an incredible escape,” said Deloire.
The journalist was under house arrest at the time of the escape and her lawyer had advised her to leave because she would be sentenced to prison. She was wearing an electronic bracelet which marked her location and which she had to cut off to escape. To leave Moscow and then Russia, he used seven different vehicles, one after the other, and had to cross a forest at night, on foot, to get out of the country: «The last vehicle we used was stuck in the mud and we had no network in our phones, so we had to orient ourselves by looking at the stars. We hid from the lights of the border guards.” For hours Ovsyannikova and her daughter wandered trying to cross the border before making it.
The journalist also recounted the reaction of her colleagues from Russia 1, which is the main Russian propaganda media, after its live protest. To the reporter of BBC Lucy Williamson he said: «I saw in the eyes of my colleagues an expression of total compassion. They looked at me with wide eyes, saying goodbye. They thought they’d never see me again.”
Ovsyannikova nevertheless received a lot of criticism for having worked for a long time Russia 1 contributing to government propaganda prior to its protest, from both Ukrainian journalists and Russian dissidents. In particular, his work for the German newspaper was contested in the Ukraine The world last summer. The journalist admitted that she had been an accomplice of the Russian regime for years, caring only for friends and family, and that she was driven to rebel by the “huge shock” of the war.