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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Lifestyle
Michelle Cullen

Russian journalist arrested after anti-war protest live on air could face 15 years in jail

An anti-war protester who interrupted the main news programme on Russia’s state TV station, has been arrested.

The woman appeared in the background of a live broadcast on Channel One holding a sign which read: "They are lying to you."

The protester, who has been named as Marina Ovsyannikova, made the statement standing behind the presenter.

Written in English and Russian the sign read: "NO WAR. Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here."

The news anchor continued with the broadcast while Ms Ovsyannikova could be heard saying: “Stop the war! No war! Stop the war! No war!"

The woman appeared in the background of a live broadcast on Channel One holding a sign which read: "They are lying to you." (Channel One broadcast)

She continued to be heard after the broadcast cut to an alternative broadcast output.

Independent protest-monitoring group OVD-Info revealed Ms Ovsyannikova’s identity and said she was an employee of the channel.

Retweeting a video of the incident, Latvia's Foreign Affairs Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs called the producer 'brave'.

Kira Yarmysh, a spokeswoman for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, posted footage of the incident on Twitter with the caption: "Wow, that girl is cool."

Ms Ovsyannikova, also posted a video before the proest blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war.

She said her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian and said she is “ashamed” to have worked for the “Kremlin’s propaganda”.

Speaking about working for Channel One sahe said: “Kremlin's propaganda and I'm very ashamed of it - that I was letting them tell those lies from the TV screen... and allowed the Russian people to be zombified".

She added: "We kept silent in 2014 when all of this was just in the beginning (annexation of Crimea). We didn't go to rallies when the Kremlin poisoned Navalny. We just silently watched this inhumane regime. Now the whole world has turned away from us, and even 10 generations of our descendants will not be enough to wash away the shame of this fratricidal war.

"We, the Russian people, thoughtful and smart. It's up to us to stop this madness. Go to rallies, don't be afraid of anything, they can't imprison all of us."

Pavel Chikov, head of Agora human rights group, said Ms Ovsyannikova had been arrested and taken to a Moscow police station.

Channel One said it is conducting an internal review into the incident, Tass news agency reported.

The station has more than 250 million viewers worldwide and is broadcast throughout Russia.

If charged under the law, the Channel One protester could face between three and 15 years in jail.

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