Marina Ovsyannikova: Russian journalist fined for
live broadcast protest
Fine of about £215 is relatively light sentence for
protest that shocked Russian TV viewers and earned plaudits from western
leaders
Andrew Roth
and Pjotr Sauer
Tue 15 Mar
2022 17.39 GMT
A Russian
court has fined Marina Ovsyannikova 30,000 roubles (£215) for violating protest
laws after she broke onto a live news broadcast on Channel One in an
extraordinary demonstration against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The fine
was a relatively light sentence for an act of protest that shocked Russian
television viewers and earned plaudits from western leaders. Emmanuel Macron of
France even offered her consular “protection” and said he would raise her case
with Vladimir Putin.
In a legal
twist, Ovsyannikova was fined not for breaking onto the Channel One set but for
a video statement she made before the protest in which she said she was
“ashamed” of having worked at Channel One and spreading “Kremlin propaganda”.
“These were
indeed some of the hardest days of my life,” she told reporters following the
short hearing. “I spent two days without sleep. I was questioned for more than
14 hours. They didn’t allow me to reach my family or give me any legal aid. I
was in a fairly difficult position.” She also said she wasn’t surprised at her
release because she had two children.
Friends and
supporters feared the worst after Ovsyannikova disappeared into police custody
for nearly 24 hours after her arrest, suspecting that prosecutors may be
preparing serious criminal charges against her. Russian state media also
reported that the powerful investigative committee had opened a case against
her.
Lawyers
spent much of the night scouring local police precincts to find her. She was
detained on Tuesday evening after running on to the set of the evening news
with a poster that read: “Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re
lying to you here.”
She finally
reappeared on Tuesday evening in a Moscow courtroom. In a photograph alongside
a lawyer, she appeared unharmed and was wearing the same outfit and necklace in
the colours of the Ukrainian flag as a day earlier.
The Kremlin
had suggested that Ovsyannikova had violated laws on hooliganism that can carry
a sentence of years in prison. Lawyers said it was still possible that
prosecutors would press tougher charges against Ovsyannikova, but that it was
less likely following Tuesday’s hearing.
“There are
still risks that a criminal case will be opened against Ovsyannikova, but the
chances of that have sharply decreased after the fine that she received today,”
said Pavel Chikov, the head of Agora International Human Rights Group. “She has
been fined not for her performance, but for her video message in which she
urged people to protest.”
“No case
has been opened yet against her performance, and the prosecutor’s office might
still decide to do so,” he continued. “But, the fact that she has already
received a quick punishment indicates that a political decision has been made
not to persecute her further.”
Tatiana
Stanovaya, a political analyst and founder of R Politik, said that there were
probably differing views among Kremlin advisers about how to deal with
Ovsyannikova’s case. While some may have lobbied for a tough response, others
could have feared a backlash if the mother of two was treated too harshly.
“Nobody was
ready for something like this ahead of time,” she said. “And the Kremlin
wouldn’t have a ready template for how to react.”
Several
prominent journalists have reportedly left their positions at state media since
Ovsyannikova’s protest.
“I’m
interested by the amount of discontent inside of the system,” said Stanovaya.
“Either right now this wave comes to nothing. Or we can see similar protests
more and more often – these vocal, desperate acts where people make similar
gestures.”
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