An extremely rare scene, in a country where information is strictly controlled. On Monday evening, March 14, a woman burst into Russia’s most-watched newscast with a sign criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The scene happened on the set of “Vremia” (“The Time”), the main evening news program of the country’s most powerful TV channel, Pervy Kanal. This daily meeting has been followed by millions of Russians since Soviet times.
As the famous presenter Ekaterina Andreyeva is speaking, a woman appears behind her with a sign that reads “No to war. Don’t believe the propaganda. You are being lied to here“. “The Russians are against the war”can we still read on the sign on which the flag of Ukraine and that of Russia are drawn.
! Russia’s main propaganda “news program” tonight. pic.twitter.com/lrRVnF8LoW
—Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) March 14, 2022
Imperturbable, the presenter continues to speak for a few seconds while the protester chants “No to war”then the channel rushes the broadcast of a report on hospitals, ending the live broadcast on the set.
The NGO for the defense of the rights of the demonstrators OVD-Info, presenting this woman as an employee of the chain, Marina Ovsiannikova, affirmed that she had been arrested and taken to the police station. “An internal investigation is being carried out” on this “incident”, the Pervy Kanal channel laconically said in a statement. According to the Tass news agency, the young woman could be prosecuted for having “discredited the use of Russian armed forces”.
In a previously recorded video published by OVD-Info, Marina Ovsiannikova explains that her father being Ukrainian and her mother Russian, she cannot see the two countries as enemies.
“Unfortunately, I worked for Pervy Kanal for the past few years, doing propaganda for the Kremlin. I’m very ashamed of it today”she says. “I’m ashamed to have allowed lies to be broadcast on television, ashamed to have allowed the Russian people to be ‘zombified’.”
In their attempt to control all information about the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian authorities have blocked most of the still independent media, as well as the main social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.