Russia has put former state TV editor Marina Ovesyannikova on a wanted list for disrupting a news broadcast protesting the Ukraine war after she allegedly escaped detention.
Ukraine-born Ovsyannikova, 44, gained international attention in March for denouncing the Ukraine war by barging into a studio at her then-employer Channel One during a live news bulletin that carried a poster that read “no war”. No”. He was fined 30,000 rubles (£460) for evading protest laws at the time.
Ovsyannikova continued to protest against the war and spread false information about the Russian military by holding a poster reading “Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists” during a solo protest on the Moskva River embankment in front of the Kremlin in August. was accused of. He was later placed under house arrest to await trial and was facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
On Saturday, Ovsyannikova’s ex-husband said that she had escaped from being placed under house arrest with their young daughter.
“Last night, my ex-wife left the place that the court had assigned to her, and disappeared in an unknown direction with my 11-year-old daughter,” said Igor Ovsyannikov, who works at the state-run news outlet RT, he said.
Ovsyannikova’s whereabouts are unknown and she did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Monday, he was added to the home ministry’s online fugitive list along with a photograph.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has launched unprecedented crackdowns on protesters, independent news outlets and foreign social media networks. In early March, President Vladimir Putin signed a draconian law providing up to 15 years in prison for intentionally spreading “fake” news about the military, virtually any public criticism of the war. was criminalized.
Hundreds of prominent Russian independent journalists and activists have fled the country, fearing a wave of government repression. But the war in Ukraine resulted in a series of resignations from state-run television channels tightly controlled by Russia.
Last month, Zhanna Agalkova, a former Channel One newsreader who was the station’s correspondent in Paris at the time of her resignation in March, announced she was returning two state medals she received from Putin for her work at the channel.
“Mister President, your leadership is leading the country to the abyss,” Agalkova said in a handwritten note posted to her Facebook page. “I consider your awards unacceptable.”