Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who drew international attention earlier this year for interrupting a live TV news broadcast to protest her country’s invasion of Ukraine, was briefly detained by Russian authorities in Moscow on Sunday, according to posts on her social media channels.
The incident was first reported on her Telegram account, with her attorney later confirming her detention.
“Marina has been detained,” the journalist’s Telegram account read. “There is no information on where she is.”
However, The Moscow Times (via Deadline) reports that she was released three hours after being picked up by Russian authorities and charged with “discrediting” the Russian army. Facebook posts from her account shared yesterday read:
“I’m home now. Everything is okey. It was China’s ‘first warning.’ But now I know that it’s better to leave home with a bag and a passport just in case. Thanks to the neighbor who was nearby at that moment. He brought me stuff and called my lawyer and friends.”
Ovsyannikova reportedly stood near the Kremlin with an anti-war poster criticizing Russian president Valdimir Putin on Friday, July 15, prior to her detention.
The police detained the former employee of “Channel One” Marina Ovsyannikova. On Friday, July 15, she went out with an anti-war poster near the Kremlin. Ovsyannikova’s Telegram channel reports that information about her location is unknown. pic.twitter.com/Yr5JeOWPRi
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 17, 2022
In March, Ovsyannikova was working as an editor of the Pervyy Kanal when she famously interrupted the network’s evening news broadcast with a poster that urged viewers not to “believe the propaganda.” She received a fine and was found guilty of violating protest laws.
German news outlet Welt hired Ovsyannikova in April as a correspondent, though the mother of two was forced to return to Russia earlier this month to argue on behalf of her parental rights in court after her ex-husband filed a lawsuit in Moscow seeking sole custody.
