The Russian state TV journalist who protested against the invasion of Ukraine and challenged Putin managed to flee the country

Marina Ovsyannikova worked on state TV until the protest once morest the invasion caused her to be persecuted (REUTERS / Evgenia Novozhenina / File)

Former Russian state television journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who protested President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on Ukraine during a live broadcast, fled the country following being included in a wanted listhis lawyer told AFP on Monday.

“Ovsyannikova and her daughter left Russia a few hours following leaving the address where she was under house arrest. Now they are in EuropeOvsyannikova’s lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, told AFP.

“They are fine. They are waiting until they can speak publicly, but for now it is not certain,” he added.

At the beginning of October he had confirmed that he has been released from house arrest on charges of spreading false news, but his place of refuge was not known so far.

The Russian journalist who denounced the invasion live came out of her house arrest

“I consider myself completely innocent, and since our State refuses to comply with its own laws, I refuse to comply with the measure of coercion that was imposed on me as of September 30, 2022 and I am released from it”, he said on Telegram.

Later, Ovsyannikova posted a short video showing a electronic anklet and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be wearing one, not her.

“It is he, and not me, who should be cut off from society and put on trial for the genocide of the people of Ukraine and the mass murder of Russian men.”, he says in the clip on his Telegram social media channel.

On March 4, eight days following the invasion of Ukraine, Russia approved new laws once morest disparaging or distributing “deliberately false information” regarding the military.

A woman came out with a poster in protest once morest the Russian invasion of Ukraine

The former Channel One editor made global headlines in March when she stormed the set of her Vremya (Time) evening news with a sign reading “Not to the war”.

She has been placed under house arrest since August following she staged a solitary protest in mid-July near the Kremlin with a banner reading “Putin is a murderer. His soldiers are fascists”.

Police accused the 44-year-old woman of distributing information regarding the Russian armed forces that the government considers false, a charge that might land her in jail for 10 years.

Zakhvatov previously told AFP that Ovsyannikova was placed on Russia’s wanted list for having evaded house arrest.

(with information from AFP and Archyde.com)

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