Who is Marina Ovsyannikova? Russian TV producer feared missing after on-air anti-war protest

Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Russia’s state Channel One television, who interrupted the channel’s main news program to protest against Vladimir Putin last Monday, was arrested shortly after her stunt, but her lawyers have no idea where she currently is.

Human Rights Attorney Pavel Chikov recently noted in a statement on Twitter:

"Marina's whereabouts have still not been established yet. She has been detained for more than 12 hours. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is conducting a pre-investigation check against Ovsyannikova, a TASS source reports. The pre-investigation check does not provide grounds for detention and imprisonment."

What did Marina Ovsyannikova say?

(Image via Marina Ovsyannikova/Facebook)

According to the Facebook account of the 44-year-old journalist, she graduated from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) in 2005, and then attended the Kuban State University in Krasnodar, southern Russia.

According to Ovsyannikova's Instagram profile, she is into “fitness and swimming in open water” and “golden retrievers.”

Last Monday, Ovsyannikova appeared behind news anchor Ekaterina Andreeva during a live broadcast on Channel One, holding a poster with a message in English and Russian, as she shouted:

"Stop the war! No war! Stop the war! No war!"

The placard bore the message:

"NO WAR. Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here."

Ovsyannikova's protest could be heard and seen for a few seconds shortly before the channel switched to a different footage. She is the first Russian state media employee to have publicly criticized the Ukraine-Russian crisis.

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In the last few weeks, more than 24 Russian media outlets have either stopped operating or been banned by Russia’s media regulator. Social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram have also been outlawed.

Hours earlier, Marina Ovsyannikova also released a pre-recorded video via the Twitter account of human rights group OVD-Info, in which she noted:

"What’s happening in Ukraine right now is a true crime. And Russia is the aggressor. And the responsibility for this crime lies only on the conscience of one person, and that person is Vladimir Putin. My father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian. They were never enemies."

Ovsyannikova, who wore a blue and yellow necklace symbolic of the flag of Ukraine, stated:

"And this necklace around my neck is a symbol of the fact that Russia must immediately stop the fratricidal war so that our closely-bonded people will still be able to reconcile."

Expressing her shame for working on Channel One and spreading "Kremlin propaganda," she said:

"Unfortunately, in recent years I have been working on Channel One, creating Kremlin propaganda and I am now very ashamed of it. I’m embarrassed for letting them tell lies from the TV screen. I’m ashamed that I allowed them to zombify Russian people."

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She added:

"We were silent in 2014, when all this was starting. We didn’t go out to rallies and protests when the Kremlin poisoned Navalny. We just silently observed this anti-human regime. And now the whole world has turned its back on us."

She concluded her statement by asking fellow Russians to come out and protest:

"And ten more generations of our descendants will not be able to wash away the shame of this fratricidal war. We are the Russian people. We are thoughtful and smart, it is only in our power to stop this madness. Come out to protest, don’t be afraid of anything, they can’t arrest every one of us."

According to reports, the journalist had been taken to the Ostankino police station, but the officers on duty noted that “she was not there.”

Ovsyannikova could be facing 15 years in jail due to new Russian legislation, which was passed on March 4 and banned the spread of “fake news” or the “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”

Channel One later noted in a statement published by Tass:

"An incident took place with an extraneous woman in shot. An internal check is being carried out.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally thanked Ovsyannikova in his nightly video address, as he said:

"I am grateful to those Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth. To those who fight disinformation and tell the truth, real facts to their friends and loved ones. And personally to the woman who entered the studio of Channel One with a poster against the war."

Marina Ovsyannikova is being praised worldwide as her whereabouts remain unknown.