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Russian anti-war protester who disrupted live show reportedly goes missing
Russia-Ukraine war: The Kremlin has said the actions of the woman - identified by OVD-Info, an independent human rights media group, as Maria Ovsyannikova - amounted to 'hooliganism.
The United Nations' human rights office has called on Russian authorities to ensure an anti-war protester - who interrupted a live news broadcast by Russia's state-controlled Channel One and is now reportedly missing - is not punished for exercising her right to free speech. Ravina Shamdasani, the UN's human rights spokesperson said Tuesday Russian authorities should ensure she 'does not face reprisals for exercising her right to freedom of expression'.
The Kremlin had earlier said the actions of the woman - identified by OVD-Info, an independent human rights media group, as Maria Ovsyannikova - amounted to 'hooliganism'.
OVD-Info tweeted Tuesday to say Ovsyannikova's whereabouts are unknown at this time. "A pre-investigation check was initiated against Channel One employee Maria Ovsyannikova, who came out with an anti-war poster during the live broadcast of the Vremya program, TASS reports citing its source. Where she is is still unknown," the tweet (in Russian) said.
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Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights group, told Reuters that Ovsyannikova had been arrested and taken to a Moscow police station.
In an unusual incident that underlines growing discontent among some sections of Russians over Vladimir Putin's 'special military operation' against Ukraine, Ovsyannikova barged into a live telecast of the channel's 9 pm flagship show and held up a placard denouncing the war.
The sign, written in English and Russian, read: "NO WAR. Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here." Another phrase, which looked like 'Russians against war', was obscured, Reuters reported.
Ovsyannikova could be seen and heard - shouting 'stop the war... no to war' - for several seconds before the channel switched to a different report to remove her from the screen.
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State investigators are looking to see if she can be punished under a new law that carries jail terms of up to 15 years, Russia's TASS news agency cited a law enforcement source as saying.
The legislation adopted eight days after the invasion of Ukraine makes public actions aimed at discrediting Russia's army illegal and bans the spread of fake news or the 'public dissemination of deliberately false information' about the use of Russia's armed forces.
In a video recorded before the incident and posted online, a woman who appeared to be Ovsyannikova described herself as a Channel One employee and said she was ashamed to have worked for years spreading Kremlin propaganda.
She said her father was Ukrainian, and her mother Russian.
"What is happening now in Ukraine is a crime… The responsibility lies on the conscience of only one man, and that man is Vladimir Putin," she said.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked Ovsyannikova.
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"I am grateful to Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth. To those who fight disinformation and tell the truth..." he said, "And personally to the woman who entered the studio of Channel One with a poster against the war."
With input from AFP, Reuters
