Marina Ovsyannikova’s former colleagues in Russian state media are attacking her for breaking into their broadcast to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It’s been a week since Ovsyannikova became an internationally-celebrated figure after walking into Channel One’s newscast, shouting “stop the war,” and publicly condemning her employers’ propaganda. Ovsyannikova has continued to speak out against the war despite fears for her safety, but her ex-colleagues are now attempting to smear her as a British spy.
Max Seddon, chief of the Financial Times’ bureau in Moscow, obtained footage of Channel One’s news division chief, Kirill Kleimyonov, accusing Ovsyannikova of “treason” against Russia and working for the United Kingdom.
“Not long before [the protest], according to our information, Marina Ovsyannikova spoke with the British embassy,” Kleimyonov said, according to an Insider translation. “Who of you has ever negotiated with a foreign embassy? Not with the visa center, but with the embassy, with its employee — even if he, as they say, is in civilian clothes. I, for one, never did.”
“Being emotionally impulsive is one thing, but treason is quite another,” Kleimyonov continued, “When a person betrays her country and at the same time all of us —- people with whom she worked side by side for almost 20 years —- betrays in a cold, calculated way, for a firmly agreed bonus…Treason is always someone’s personal
Kleimyonov did not produce any evidence behind his accusations against Ovsyannikova.
In a previous interview, Ovsyannikova said her decision to protest was spontaneous, though she had a “growing sense of dissatisfaction” for some time with the propaganda Channel One was churning out. She has only been fined so far, though there are recurring public concerns for her well-being since Russia is cracking down on anti-Kremlin journalists and political dissidents.
Watch above, via Max Seddon