A HERO Russian journalist who staged a protest live on TV to slam Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has gone missing, her lawyers said.
Marina Ovsyannikova called the war criminal and said Russia is the aggressor in a pre-recorded video, before she stormed the country’s top news show.
The 43-year-old staged her protest during employer Channel One’s top news show holding a sign reading: “They’re lying to you.”
The mum-of-two was immediately detained at the channel’s HQ but her lawyers have not been able to see her amid fears she’s been held at a secret location.
According to Russian human rights group OVDInfo, whose lawyers have been helping Marina, prosecutors have begun preparing a case against her.
But ominously they tweeted “where she is is still unknown”.
One of her lawyers Danill Berman said he expected her to be held initially for 15 days and then face arrest on a criminal accusation with a long jail sentence a possibility.
Marina was initially held for three hours in the duty room at the channel’s Ostankino television centre headquarters in Moscow.
Another lawyer acting for her Pavel Chikov said today: “Marina’s whereabouts have not been established yet.
“She has been detained for more than 12 hours.”
She faces prosecution under new article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the “public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Russian Federation Armed Forces”.
The maximum penalty for the offence is 15 years in prison.
Before she staged her stunt she recorded a message in which she attacked Putin personally, insisting: “They can’t jail us all.”
Her Facebook profile picture changed yesterday showing her and an icon of a dove with an olive branch, which she uploaded around the time she recorded the clip.
Marina, whose dad is Ukrainian, said in the video: “What is happening in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor.
“Responsibility for that aggression lies on the conscience of only one person. That person is Vladimir Putin.
“My father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian, and they were never enemies.
“The necklace around my neck is a symbol that Russia must immediately stop this brother-killing war and our brother peoples can yet reconcile.
It comes as…
“Unfortunately the past years I have worked at Channel One, working on Kremlin propaganda.
“And I am now deeply ashamed of that. Ashamed that I allowed pronunication of lies on the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of the Russian people. “
Marina said Russians were “quiet” in 2014 when the country seized Crimea and did “not go out to protest” when the Kremlin poisoned Putin foe Alexei Navalny.
“We simply watched this inhumane regime. And now the entire world has turned away from us.
“And another ten generations of our descendants will not wash themselves clean of the shame of this brother-killing war.
“We are Russian people: thinking, and intelligent. It is only in our strength to stop all of this insanity.
“Come out to protect. Do not fear anything. They cannot jail us all.”
Marina interrupted Russia’s most famous newsreader Ekaterina Andreeva, 60, on a channel that in recent weeks has spewed anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western rhetoric.
Her sign also said “stop the war” and “don’t believe the propaganda” and she chanted on air: “Stop the war! No to war!”
The channel cut to a different report to remove her from the screen after several seconds of her being seen and heard.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Marina in his nightly video address.
He said: “I am grateful to those Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth. To those who fight disinformation and tell the truth, real facts to their friends and loved ones.
“And personally to the woman who entered the studio of Channel One with a poster against the war.”
Kira Yarmysh, spokeswoman for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, wrote on Twitter: “Wow, that girl is cool.”
Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a picture of the incident with Ovsyannikova’s sign blurred out due to strict censorship rules.
At least 14,911 anti-war protestors have been arrested by Russian police since the start of the invasion.
Police arrested more than 800 people protesting yesterday alone.
Reports from a protest in the capital Moscow witnessed at least a dozen arrests and said police were taking away anybody without press papers.
A young woman was shouting “peace to the world” as she was taken away by two policemen, the journalist said.
Some of the riot police had the letter “Z” in the colours of the Russian flag on their helmets.
The letter, seen on Russian tanks and vehicles in Ukraine, has become a symbol of support for Moscow’s invasion.
Putin has also cracked down on the free press by closing independent news outlets.
And state media outlets are forced to call his war in Ukraine a “special military operation”, rather than an invasion.
