Russian Anti-war Journalist Marina Ovsyannikova Detained Again In Moscow

18.07.2022 - 11:35 / deadline.com

Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who daringly interrupted a live TV broadcast to protest her country’s invasion of Ukraine, was briefly detained by Russian authorities for a second time over the weekend.

News of her arrest broke Sunday on her Telegram account after friends posted that she had been picked up by police in Moscow while cycling and bundled into a white van.

According to The Moscow Times – which has been operating in exile out of Amsterdam since March – Ovsyannikova was released three hours later, having been charged with “discrediting” the Russian army.

Ovsyannikova was an editor at the government-controlled Pervyy Kanal at the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Distressed by the images out of Ukraine, she interrupted the channel’s main evening news bulletin on March 14 and held up a poster protesting the war and calling on viewers not to “believe the propaganda”.

She was briefly detained, fined $527 (30,000 rubles) and left Russia shortly after. Until recently, she had been living outside of Russia, working for German newspaper Die Welt on a temporary contract.

On July 3, the journalist announced on her Instagram account that she was returning to Russia to fight for access to her two children after her ex-husband filed a lawsuit asking for sole custody in Moscow.

Ovsyannikova said in the post that she could be arrested on her return but despite these fears, she has stepped up her public campaign against the war on her return.

On Friday (July 15), she carried out a second solo demonstration near the Kremlin. Video footage shows her standing opposite the Kremlin, brandishing a placard with slogans criticising the Russian aggression on Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin. At her