- A top exec at Russia’s state-owned Channel One addressed the on-air protest against the Ukraine war.
- Marina Ovsyannikova said Russian media was pushing lies about the invasion.
- He accused Ovsyannikova of colluding with the UK embassy to stage the protest.
Russia’s state-owned Channel One network accused the producer who staged an on-air protest against the Ukraine invasion of colluding with the UK to betray her country.
Kirill Kleimyonov, head of Channel One’s news division, claimed in Monday on-air remarks that Marina Ovsyannikova had been in contact with the UK embassy before her protest, and that she “betrayed [her] country and all of us.”
“Marina Ovsyannikova spoke with the British embassy. 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,” Kleimyonov said, without providing evidence for his claim.
“I mean to call a spade a spade, that’s all. An emotional outburst is one thing, but betrayal is quite another.”
“And 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,” he said, again without providing evidence for his claim that she financially benefitted from the protest.
“Betrayal is always a personal choice, you can’t save a person from it, as you know. But it is imperative to call a spade a spade,” he said.
—max seddon (@maxseddon) March 21, 2022
Ovsyannikova’s attorney and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Ovsyannikova interrupted a live broadcast on the Ukraine invasion holding up a sign that said “Don’t believe the propaganda” and “They are lying to you here” in Russian, and “No war” in English.
Russian officials accused her of staging an “unauthorized” demonstration, and she was fined 30,000 rubles ($280) for the protest. There are concerns that she could face further criminal charges.
Russian state media has long been tightly controlled by the Kremlin, with journalists rarely deviating from the official line promoted by the government.
The Russian media has echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin in portraying the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as a mission to “denazify” the country. A recent bill also outlawed describing the conflict as a “war,” compelling many foreign media outlets to leave the country.
Putin also alleged in a speech last week that “fifth columnist” traitors in Russia were seeking to betray the country.
Ovsyannikova, who has since left her job at Channel One, told ABC News on Sunday that she held the protest to expose how Russian state media was feeding the Russian public falsehoods about the war.
“I could show to the Russian people that this is just propaganda, expose this propaganda for what it is and maybe stimulate some people to speak up against the war,” she said.
Ovsyannikova also said French President Emmanuel Macron had offered her political asylum, but she refused the offer.
“I am very worried for the safety of my children, first and foremost. And I’m very grateful to Mr. Macron for his offer, but I have publicly refused to take political asylum in France because I am a patriot,” she said.
“And now I believe in the history of my country. The times are very dark and very difficult, and every person who has a civil position who wants to make that civil position known must speak up.”
Translations by Oleksandr Vynogradov.
