IN THE DOCK
Hero protester Marina Ovsyannikova ‘kept awake for two days’ before she was fined for slamming Putin’s ‘lies’ on live TV
HERO Russian protester Marina Ovsyannikova says she was went two days without sleep ahead of her court appearance today - where she was fined for challenging the war in Ukraine.
Ovsyannikova - who barged onto the set of Russia's most-watched evening news holding a poster reading "No War" - was pictured in court after breaching the country's draconian protest laws.
5
5
The brave Russian journalist denied one charge of "organising an unauthorised public event" in court on Tuesday.
But she was fined 30,000 roubles (£215) after the court found her guilty of flouting protest legislation.
After the court appearance Ovsyannikova said she had been questioned for more than 14 hours without legal help or the opportunity to contact her loved ones.
She told the BBC: "It was my anti-war decision. I made this decision by myself because I don't like Russia starting this invasion. It was really terrible."
A recent tweet had shown Ovsyannikova next to her lawyer Anton Gashunsky in a close-off room preparing for her hearing.
She had earlier been reported as missing.
A post on the Telegram channel where the photo was originally shared said Ovsyannikova was awaiting trial in Ostankino District Court.
Ovsyannikova called Putin a war criminal and said Russia was the aggressor in a pre-recorded video, before she stormed the country's top news show.
The 43-year-old staged her protest during employer Channel One’s top news show holding a sign reading: “They’re lying to you.”
READ MORE ON UKRAINE
The mum-of-two was immediately detained at the channel's HQ but her lawyers have not been able to see her amid fears she's been held at a secret location.
According to Russian human rights group OVDInfo, whose lawyers have been helping Marina, prosecutors have begun preparing a case against her.
She has been charged with organising an unauthorised public event, which could be punished with a fine and community service or 10 days in jail.
Ovsyannikova was initially held for three hours in the duty room at the channel’s Ostankino television centre headquarters in Moscow.
Most read in News
She faced prosecution under new article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the “public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Russian Federation Armed Forces”.
The maximum penalty for the offence is 15 years in prison.
Before she staged her stunt she recorded a message in which she attacked Putin personally, insisting: "They can't jail us all."
Her Facebook profile picture changed yesterday showing her and an icon of a dove with an olive branch, which she uploaded around the time she recorded the clip.
Ovsyannikova, whose dad is Ukrainian, said in the video: "What is happening in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor.
"Responsibility for that aggression lies on the conscience of only one person. That person is Vladimir Putin.
"My father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian, and they were never enemies.
"The necklace around my neck is a symbol that Russia must immediately stop this brother-killing war and our brother peoples can yet reconcile.
It comes as...
- China is willing to send weapons to Russia to help its invasion, the US has warned.
- Sobbing Russian soldiers apologised for killing "civilians and children" in Ukraine.
- A Russian drone was reportedly shot down in Ukraine today after claims it flew into Polish airspace.
- An anti-war activist stormed Russia's main propaganda news show with a sign saying: "They're lying to you."
- One of the world's most fearsome snipers has vowed that he "won't hesitate to squeeze the trigger".
- Brit fighter says Ukrainian forces are “like the Taliban on steroids”.
- Russia has released chilling new footage of its hypersonic nuke missile that could hit London in five minutes.
"Unfortunately the past years I have worked at Channel One, working on Kremlin propaganda.
"And I am now deeply ashamed of that. Ashamed that I allowed pronunication of lies on the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of the Russian people. "
Ovsyannikova said Russians were "quiet" in 2014 when the country seized Crimea and did "not go out to protest" when the Kremlin poisoned Putin foe Alexei Navalny.
"We simply watched this inhumane regime. And now the entire world has turned away from us.
"And another ten generations of our descendants will not wash themselves clean of the shame of this brother-killing war.
'STOP THIS INSANITY'
"We are Russian people: thinking, and intelligent. It is only in our strength to stop all of this insanity.
"Come out to protect. Do not fear anything. They cannot jail us all."
Ovsyannikova interrupted Russia’s most famous newsreader Ekaterina Andreeva, 60, on a channel that in recent weeks has spewed anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western rhetoric.
The channel cut to a different report to remove her from the screen after several seconds of her being seen and heard.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Marina in his nightly video address.
He said: "I am grateful to those Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth.
"And personally to the woman who entered the studio of Channel One with a poster against the war."
KREMLIN CRACKDOWN
Kira Yarmysh, spokeswoman for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, wrote on Twitter: "Wow, that girl is cool."
Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a picture of the incident with Ovsyannikova's sign blurred out due to strict censorship rules.
At least 14,911 anti-war protestors have been arrested by Russian police since the start of the invasion.
Police arrested more than 800 people protesting yesterday alone.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Read More on The Sun
Putin has also cracked down on the free press by closing independent news outlets.
And state media outlets are forced to call his war in Ukraine a "special military operation", rather than an invasion.
5
5
5
Topics