A Russian journalist who
staged an anti-war protest on the country’s main TV news channel said police
raided her home in Moscow as part of a new probe against her.
Marina Ovsyannikova said 10
police and officers from the Investigative Committee, Russia’s equivalent of
the FBI, searched her apartment early Wednesday and took her away for
questioning.
A criminal case under Russia’s
“fake news law was opened over a protest she staged near the Kremlin last month
that criticized President Vladimir Putin for civilian deaths in his war in
Ukraine,” she said in a Telegram post.
“Are more than 350 children
killed in Ukraine fakes?” Ovsyannikova wrote. “How many more children have to
die for you to stop?”
Those convicted under the law
on spreading information discrediting the Russian army face as much as 15 years
in jail.
Ovsyannikova was a producer at
First Channel, Russia’s main national network, when she interrupted the state
TV news in March to stage a rare public protest week after Putin ordered the
invasion, holding up a sign during a live broadcast that said “They’re lying to
you.”
A Moscow court fined her
30,000 rubles ($490) for violating laws on public protests, and her action
brought offers of support from western leaders including French President
Emmanuel Macron.
Ovsyannikova said Monday on
Facebook that she had been fined 40,000 rubles by a Moscow court for a post on
the social media platform that a judge ruled had discredited the Russian army.
