Russian journalist Marina Ovsiannikova was arrested at her home on Wednesday August 10 in Moscow (Russia) after a search by the police. She had given an interview to franceinfo the same morning, in which she reaffirmed her opposition to the war waged by the Kremlin in Ukraine.
Famous for having interrupted the newspaper of a Russian state channel, she had already received two administrative fines in the last two weeks for her stance against military intervention. This time, the case is even more serious, since it is a criminal investigation for “dissemination of false information about the Russian army” which has been opened against him. This crime is punishable by up to fifteen years in prison.
>> Against the war in Ukraine, “every voice that rises from Russia is very important”, persists journalist Marina Ovsiannikova
“At 6 a.m., while I was still sleeping, ten members of the investigation committee and the police burst into my home”, writes Marina Ovsiannikova on Telegram. Investigators accuse her of a demonstration in front of the Kremlin on July 15, during which she accused Vladimir Putin of“assassin” and talked about the dead children in Ukraine. “More than 350 dead children in Ukraine, are they fake?”she maintained this Tuesday morning. “How many more children have to die for you to stop?”
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Marina Ovsyannikova’s lawyer, Dmitri Zakhvatov, confirmed this information to franceinfo. “I asked the police to wait for my arrival for the search, which I was refused”, he explains. The journalist was transferred to the committee’s offices at the end of the search, which resulted in the confiscation of telephones and a computer.
In Russia, dozens of people are already being prosecuted on charges of “false information” about the army. At the beginning of July, Moscow city councilor Alexey Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in prison on similar charges, under laws that came into force after the start of the war. Opponent Vladimir Kara-Muza and city councilor Ilya Iashin are also being held pending trial.
The former journalist from “Première Chaîne” had joined the media for three months Die WeltGermany, before returning to Moscow in early July. “Every voice raised against the war from Russia is very important”said Marina Ovsiannikova to franceinfo, in an interview published on Wednesday. “When a person speaks against the war inside Russia, it is much louder than when you are abroad.”