The Woman Who Brought Anti-War Posters On Live TV Controlled By The Kremlin Is Now Worried About Her Safety

BBC video screenshot

JAKARTA - Marina Ovsyannikova is feeling anxious now after she went viral after sneaking into the live broadcast of the Russian evening news on Channel 1 and unfurling an anti-war poster.

To Reuters, as quoted by Channel News Asia, Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee who served as an editor at the channel, is now worried for her safety. But she hopes her protests will open Russia's eyes to propaganda.

She promised not to run away from Russia because of her reckless action. But she also hopes she won't face criminal charges.

"I believed in what I was doing but now I understand the scale of the problem I have to deal with, and, of course, I am very worried about my safety," Ovsyannikova, editor at Channel One, told Reuters.

"I really don't feel like a hero ... you know, I really want to feel that this sacrifice was not in vain, and people will open their eyes," she said again.

She was fined 30,000 rubles ($280) on Tuesday hours after the Kremlin denounced her protests as "hooliganism".

Russian TV news is tightly controlled by the Kremlin and reflects only the Russian version of events in Ukraine. After the incident, Ovsyannikova is believed to be in police custody.

Prior to the protest, which took place live on the evening news program, she recorded a video in which she called events in Ukraine a "crime" and said she was ashamed to work for what she called Kremlin propaganda.

"I'm ashamed to let myself lie from the television screen. Shame because I let Russians turn into zombies," she said, as quoted by the BBC, Monday 15 March.