War in Ukraine
Russian journalist in Ukraine war protest detained
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MOSCOW • Russian police on Sunday detained journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in March interrupted a live TV broadcast to denounce the military action in Ukraine, her lawyer said.
No official statement has been made, but her detention comes a few days after the 44-year-old journalist demonstrated alone near the Kremlin holding a placard criticising Russia's intervention in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin.
"Marina has been detained," her entourage said in a message posted on her Telegram account. "There is no information on where she is."
The message included three photos of her being led by two police officers to a white van.
Her lawyer, Mr Dmitri Zakhvatov, confirmed her arrest to the Ria-Novosti news agency, saying he did not know where she had been taken. "I assume that it is linked one way or another to her act of protest," he said.
In March, Ms Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One, barged onto the set of its flagship Vremya (Time) evening news programme, holding a poster reading "No War" in English.
Last Friday, Ms Ovsyannikova posted on Telegram photos of herself near the Kremlin and carrying a protest placard raising the deaths of children and denouncing Mr Putin as a "killer".
Declarations of this kind expose her to criminal prosecution for publishing "false information" about and "denigrating" the army, offences that can carry heavy prison sentences.
She became internationally famous in March when she staged her live TV protest.
She was briefly detained, then released with a fine. While a number of international observers praised her protest, some critics said she had spent years working for a channel, Pervy Kanal, which they said was effectively a mouthpiece for the Kremlin.
In the months after her March protest, Ms Ovsyannikova spent some time abroad, including a brief period working for German newspaper Die Welt. Early this month, she said she was returning to Russia to settle a dispute over the custody of her children.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE