‘Bravest woman on TV’ facing jail after Kremlin raid
THE Russian TV producer who protested against Vladimir Putin’s war live on air had her home raided by his security service thugs yesterday.
Marina Ovsyannikova, 44, was dubbed ‘the bravest woman on TV’ after she walked on to set during an evening news bulletin with a poster that read ‘they lie to you here’ and ‘stop the war’.
She revealed on the messaging app Telegram yesterday that ten officers raided her
‘They scared my young daughter’
home at 6am, adding: ‘They scared my young daughter.’
Her lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov confirmed that a criminal case had been launched and said she could be taken into custody ahead of a trial.
The journalist stands accused of spreading ‘fake news’ about the army.
The Kremlin made this a crime shortly after its illegal February invasion of Ukraine, which it refers to as a ‘special military operation’.
If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in jail. Mr Zakhvatov said he believes the investigation is linked to a demonstration staged by his client opposite the Kremlin last month, when she unfurled a banner reading ‘Putin is a killer; his soldiers are fascists’.
During the raid, Miss Ovsyannikova wrote on Telegram: ‘A criminal case was opened against me, allegedly for fakes [against the Russian army]. Over 350 children who died in Ukraine, are they fakes?’
The producer, whose father is Ukrainian, quit her job at Kremlin mouthpiece Channel One shortly after she disrupted the news on March 14. She was charged with disparaging the military and fined 30,000 rubles, worth just over £200 at the time.
Since then she has become something of an anti-war activist and has been hit with several further fines.
Miss Ovsyannikova spent some time in Germany as a columnist for newspaper Die Welt before returning last month to settle a dispute over the custody of her children.