World

Former Russian state TV journalist flees country after escaping house arrest

Former Russian state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has fled the country after escaping from house arrest, her lawyer said.

Ms Ovsyannikova interrupted a live broadcast in March to protest the war in Ukraine, holding up a sign which read in English: “No war. Russians against war.”

In Russian it read: “NO WAR. Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you here.”

The 44-year-old’s lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, said she and her daughter had fled Russia a few hours after she left where she was being held under house arrest and are now under the protection of an unnamed European state.

“They are in Europe now,” he added. “They are fine. They are waiting until they can talk publicly, but for now it is not safe.”

Zakhatov declined to elaborate further on her location saying that it “may turn out to be a problem for her”.

Ovsyannikova had been held under house arrest since August after she staged a lone protest outside the Kremlin carrying a placard that read “Putin is a murderer. His soldiers are fascists.”

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She was charged with disseminating information about the Russian armed forces the Kremlin deemed to be “false” a charge that carries a 10 year prison sentence.

At the time of her first protest she was the editor of the nightly news programme Vremya.

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