During a live broadcast of the nightly news on Monday, Marina Ovsyannikova, a news editor, ran behind the news anchor with a sign, shouting, “Stop the war. No to war.” Her protest was aired for a few seconds before the channel cut the signal and switched to a recorded segment.
Ovsyannikova was subsequently arrested, but in a pre-recorded message published to social media she said, “Regrettably, for a number of years, I worked on Channel One and worked on Kremlin propaganda, I am very ashamed of this right now [...] Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of the Russian people. We were silent in 2014 when this was just beginning. We did not go out to protest when the Kremlin poisoned [opposition leader Alexei] Navalny."
Ovsyannikova added that her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian
Russia has historically clamped down on dissent and criticism of the government. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia has detained nearly 15,000 people, including children and elderly people, for protesting against the war. More than two dozen media outlets have been blocked, and Facebook and Instagram have also been banned. For most Russians, their main source of news is state-run television.