Marina Ovsyannikova, Russian Anti-War Protester Interrupts News On State TV
Russian State TV protest ‘sent shockwaves through all of Russian society’
Yakov Kronrod went back to Russia to care for his mother months before the invasion of Ukraine, so he was on the ground watching as a Channel One editor took the bold move to stage a protest on live television.
Marina Ovsyannikova, the editor of Channel One, held up a sign saying that Russians were being lied to and not to believe the propaganda. She was detained and taken to the Ostankino police department. Russia’s Vladimir Putin passed a law that any person who says something that conflicts with the government can be thrown in jail for 15 years.
According to Kronrod, even pro-Putin outlets have reported on the story, he said, delivering her message even farther to more people.
“It sends shock waves through all of Russian society. Yandex News had a story about it, and they rarely have anything that’s against the main narrative,” said Kronrod. “Her Facebook page was getting thousands of people commenting every minute. Literally, it exploded. Everyone was texting each other, calling each other saying, did you see? Did you see what happened? And many of the human rights activists that I’m talking to feel this may very well be the start of the wave to see someone like that Channel 1 has 250 million viewers, it’s the number one watched station by most common Russians. For a lot of Russians, this was the first time they saw any dissenting voice.”
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