War in Ukraine: Marina Ovsiannikova, the journalist who opposed Putin

Live on Russian television, journalist Marina Ovsiannikova had dared to challenge Vladimir Putin and his propaganda. Now a refugee in France, thanks to the help of Reporters Without Borders, she speaks on the microphone of 8 p.m., Friday, February 10. Still upset, she says: “I was afraid of not being able to make it to the studio. I thought they were going to arrest me first and send me to rot in the cellars of the Russian secret services.“

Flee to avoid jail

After her gesture of defiance, Marina Ovsiannikova is interrogated for 14 hours and spends an excruciating night in prison. Under house arrest, she wears an electronic bracelet. “I understood very well that the next step for me would be prison. My lawyer told me that I had to hurry, that this was my last chance to flee”she explains. To leave the country, he will have to cut off his electronic bracelet, borrow seven different vehicles and walk for hours. She leaves behind a country she loved. She will have to live in exile with the fear of reprisals.