Russian journalist who stormed a live news broadcast with an anti-war sign says 'more than half of the people in Russia' oppose the war in Ukraine
Channel One
- A Russian journalist who stormed her own network's broadcast to protest the Ukrainian war said more than half of all Russians are against the invasion.
- "I believe that many people, more than half of the people in Russia, are against the war," Maria Ovsyannikova said.
- Footage showed Ovsyannikova holding up a sign during the broadcast that told viewers they were being lied to.
A Russian news producer who protested her own network's coverage of the war in Ukraine on live television said on Sunday that most Russians are against the invasion.
Footage shows Maria Ovsyannikova, an editor at Russian state broadcaster Channel One, running onto the set as another newscaster delivers an address on camera. Ovsyannikova can be seen holding up a sign that informs viewers they are being lied to before the footage quickly switches over to another scene away from the set.
"Stop the war! Don't believe propaganda! They're lying to you here!" the sign read.
—Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 14, 2022
"Stop the war! No to war! Stop the war! No to war!" Ovsyannikova shouted as she held the sign.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Ovsyannikova said she believes "that many people, more than half of the people in Russia, are against the war."
She said she had initially planned to attend a protest in Moscow to demonstrate against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but ultimately changed her mind to pursue a different approach.
"I decided that maybe I could do something else, something more meaningful, but more impact. Where I could attract more attention to this and I could show to the rest of the world that Russians are against the war," she said.
She continued: "And 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."
In an interview earlier this week, Ovsyannikova said the idea to protest has been "brewing" in her head for a while.
"I have been feeling a cognitive dissonance, more and more, between my beliefs and what we say on air," Ovsyannikova said in an interview with CNN. "It was a brewing sense of dissatisfaction that kept increasing every year. The war was the point of no return, when it was simply impossible to stay silent."