Russian prosecutors are seeking a 9.5-year prison sentence for a fugitive former state TV journalist, who is best known for barging into a live news program while carrying a poster to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine weeks after it began.
Marina Ovsyannikova, who previously worked as an editor at Russian state TV channel One, now lives in exile in France, after escaping house arrest and leaving Russia with her daughter last year.
Now, prosecutors are seeking a prison term of nearly a decade at Ovsyannikova’s trial in absentia for allegedly spreading “fake news.”
The news comes days after US journalist Evan Gershkovich marked six months of his time in a Russian prison on espionage charges. He and the US government strongly denied the accusations.
Ovsyannikova’s first protest came less than three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. He burst into the Channel One studio while the broadcast was in progress, holding up posters with the words “Stop the war” and “They are lying to you.”
The “fake news” charge against her concerns a rally held in July 2022, when Ovsyannikova stood on a river embankment opposite the Kremlin with a poster calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a murderer.
Since the war in Ukraine began, Moscow has targeted several dissident Russian journalists with trials in absentia over their criticism of the war. Such criticism is illegal in Russia.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment from VOA. (rd/lt)