A woman broke into Russia’s most-watched news program on Monday night with a banner criticizing the military offensive in Ukraine, a highly unusual scene in a country where information is strictly controlled.
According to the NGO for the defense of the rights of protesters OVD-Info, the woman is Marina Ovsiannikova, an employee of the chain. The organization assures that she was arrested and taken to the police station.
The scene occurred during Pervy Kanal’s main evening news program called “Vremia” (“the weather”), followed by millions of Russians since Soviet times.
As the famous presenter Ekaterina Andreieva was speaking, Ovsiannikova emerged from behind with a banner that read “No war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here.”
“The Russians are against the war,” also indicates the banner, which also has the Russian and Ukrainian flags drawn.
Unperturbed, the presenter continues speaking for a few seconds, while the protester shouts: “no to war!”. Later, the chain issued a report on the hospitals, ending the live broadcast from the set.
“An internal investigation” into this “incident is ongoing,” Pervy Kanal said in a statement.
According to the Tass press agency, the young woman could be prosecuted for having “discredited the use of the Russian armed forces.”
In a previously recorded video published by OVD-Info, Ovsiannikova explains that, being her Ukrainian father and Russian mother, she fails to see both countries as enemies.
“Unfortunately, I have worked for Pervy Kanal in recent years, doing propaganda for the Kremlin. Today I am very ashamed of it,” he says.
“I am ashamed that I have allowed lies to be broadcast on television, that I have allowed the Russian people to be ‘zombified’,” he adds.
The video spread like wildfire through social networks, and many Internet users applauded the “courage” of the woman, in a context of strong repression against any form of dissidence.
In an attempt to control any information about the conflict, the authorities blocked most independent media outlets and major social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.
Thus, most Russians only have access to the government and media version, like Pervy Kanal, of the “special military operation” aimed at “denazifying” Ukraine and preventing “genocide.”
