A Heroine for Our Times

"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is a killer his soldiers are fascists, 352 children have been killed [in Ukraine]."

"How many more children should die for you to stop?"

"May the murdered kids haunt your dreams tonight." 

"I do not plan to stop, I am not afraid despite the constant intimidation from the authorities."

"The next 10 generations won't be able to clean themselves from the shame of this fratricidal war."

"I'm ashamed that I allowed myself to tell lies from the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed Russians to be turned into zombies.We just silently watched this inhumane regime." 

"The [Mach] interrogation lasted for more than 14 hours, I wasn't allowed to get in touch with my family or friends, I was denied access to a lawyer."

"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." 

Marina Ovsyannikova, former state Russian TV journalist

Marina Ovsyannikova in a Moscow court room. AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

She is defiant and courageous.  She will not be intimidated, she speaks what she believes and feels. She is a Russian hero, a formerly admired state journalist whose presence on television was familiar to all Russians. When the Russian 'special military operation' was still in its infancy, not yet a month after the February 24 invasion, she staged an on-air protest against the war campaign that Moscow forced on Ukraine. Following her first March protest she was briefly placed under arrest and fined. 

 

 

She then left Russia given a short contract with the German newspaper Die Welt. When she returned to Russia it was with full knowledge that she could be re-arrested. Her return was occasioned in early July, drawn to fight for access to her two children following her ex-husband having filed a lawsuit for sole custody. And nor was she determined to keep a low profile even at that. This Russian daughter of a Ukrainian father continued to stage public protests against Russia's conflict in Ukraine.

On August 10 police raided her home to arrest her. A day later, she was charged with spreading fake news about the military, an offense that carries up to ten years in prison under a special Russian law enacted in the wake of the invasion. Any criticism, even referencing the 'special military operation' as a conflict, or the use of the word 'war' could have a protester arrested and face years of incarceration. Even while Ms.Ovsyannikova sat in the glassed-in courtroom cage, she lifted a hand-lettered sign reading: "May the murdered kids haunt your dreams tonight."

 

A resident stands next to a house destroyed by a Russian military strike in Marhanets, a town in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region on Aug. 10. (Press service of the National Police of Ukraine/Reuters)

She was ordered by the court to be placed under house arrest. To await a trial on charges of spreading false information about the Russian armed forces. Involved last month in a street protest where she held up a banner condemning Vladimir Putin as a killer, if convicted she could be penalized by ten years in prison. That being the case, the woman who is prepared to fight for the right to have access to her children may not see them again. In the mid-July protest there were two dolls lying at her feet, covered in red ink to simulate blood.

Her trial is set for October 9. A wide crackdown on anti-war protests across Russia to stamp out dissent has victimized many loyal Russians who just happen not to be loyal to Vladimir Putin. His violent incursion in Ukraine has appalled his critics, detractors and opponents. OVD-info, an independent Russian human rights watchdog, estimates that over 15,000 detentions have taken place since March, with up to 178 people facing court trials who could end up with lengthy prison sentences.

 

Former Russian state TV employee Marina Ovsyannikova  Reuters