A still of a broadcast from Russia’s Channel 1 TV network showing Maria Ovsyannikova holding a banner on March 14, 2022.
Channel One
A former Russian journalist who criticized the invasion of Ukraine escaped her house arrest, Russia said.
Marina Ovsyannikova protested on live TV, and also held up a sign opposite the Kremlin.
Russia’s Interior Ministry put her on its wanted list.
A Russian journalist who protested the invasion of Ukraine, including live on state TV, is now on a wanted list after authorities said she escaped her house arrest and fled.
Marina Ovsyannikova repeatedly criticized Russia’s invasion, including holding up a sign on live TV and posting on social media, and was punished by Russia.
She was put under two months of pre-trial house arrest in August after she was charged with spreading fake news about Russia’s armed forces, Reuters reported at the time.
That charge came not from the TV incident, but from standing on a riverbank opposite the Kremlin with a sign that called Russian President Vladimir Putin a murderer, and Russian soldiers fascists, according to Reuters.
Russia’s Interior Ministry said on Monday that she had fled and had taken her 11-year-old daughter with her, The Washington Post reported.
The Interior Ministry put her on its wanted list in response.
Russian state media RT quoted Ovsyannikova’s ex-husband as saying: “Last night, my ex-wife left the place that the court assigned her for house arrest and, together with my 11-year-old daughter, fled in an unknown direction,” Reuters reported.
No other details about her apparent escape are available.
Ovsyannikova could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison if found guilty, Reuters reported.
She made headlines around the world when she protested the invasion live on Russian state TV in March.
She went onto the live broadcast of Russian state TV channel Channel One — where she worked at the time — and held up a sign that said “Don’t believe the propaganda,” and “They are lying to you here.”
She also shouted: “Stop the war! No to war! Stop the war! No to war!”
For her on-air protest, Ovsyannikova was fined 30,000 rubles in March, which was worth around $280 at the time. She was also fired from her job.
She was further fined $820 in July after being charged with discrediting the nation’s army on social media.
Ovsyannikova told CNN in March, after her live TV protest, that she did it because it was “impossible to stay silent.”
She said: I realized we would have to do something, or we will reach a point of no return, and it will be more and more difficult to do anything.”