Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who interrupted a state TV news broadcast by holding up a sign protesting against the country’s invasion of Ukraine, has been photographed with her lawyer.
There were fears that Ms Ovsyannikova had gone missing following her stunt, after a human rights lawyer said she had not been heard from for several hours.
However, a photo surfaced on Tuesday afternoon of Ms Ovsyannikova with someone understood to be her lawyer.
Sky News believes the photograph, from the encrypted messaging app Telegram, is genuine.
During a live broadcast on Channel One on Monday evening, Ms Ovsyannikova, who is thought to have worked for the company for years, walked on to the set behind the presenter with a placard denouncing the country’s invasion of Ukraine – a move the Kremlin has described as “hooliganism”.
It was a risky protest in a country where independent media has been blocked or shuttered, and it has become illegal to contradict the government’s narrative of the war.
The UN’s human rights office has called on Russian authorities to ensure that she “does not face any reprisals for exercising her right to freedom of expression”.
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What happens now?
Mr Chikov, who is head of the Russian human rights group Agora, said Ms Ovsyannikova had been arrested and taken to a police station in Moscow.
She may face charges under a law against discrediting the armed forces, TASS reported, citing a law enforcement source.
The law, passed on 4 March, makes public actions aimed at discrediting Russia’s army illegal and bans the spread of fake news or the “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”. The offence carries a jail term of up to 15 years.
