The Russian journalist who protested on television is still missing

International Newsroom, 15 Mar The whereabouts of journalist Maria Ovsianikova, who stormed the set of a Russian television channel on Monday with a poster against the invasion of Ukraine remain unknown, the portal OvdinFolive, an NGO that defends those arrested by protests in Russia, reported on Tuesday. According to this portal, the journalist can be charged with a crime of “falsehood” in relation to the actions of the Russian army, covered by the criminal code of the Russian Federation and claims that, under the reform approved by the Duma on March 4, she could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov today called Ovsyanikova's attitude a “hooligan”: “As for this woman, it is an act of vandalism. The channel and the respective agencies are investigating it.” Ovsianikova, a journalist on Russian television Channel 1, broke into the live broadcast of the evening news program Vremya yesterday, shouting proclamations and brandishing a cartel against the war in Ukraine, after which she was arrested. “No war. End the war. Don't believe in propaganda. They're lying to you here. Russians against war”, read the banner that the journalist held. Simultaneously, the journalist shouted several times in the middle of the broadcast “stop the war” and “no to war”. The channel, one of the leading Russian state television, confirmed the fact and opened an investigation into what it called an “accident with an intruder”. More than 15,000 people have been detained in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began twenty days ago. The journalist stated in a message on social media, before carrying out her protest action, that what was happening in Ukraine was “a real crime” and that Russia was “the aggressor”. “And the responsibility for this crime lies only on the conscience of a person, and that person is Vladimir Putin,” he said. “Russia must immediately stop the fraticidal war so that our tightly united people can still be reconciled,” said the journalist in her social media message and published on her Twitter account the opposition portal OvdinFolive. Another journalist, Lilia Gildeeva, who had been working on the channel since 2006, left Russia and wrote a letter of resignation from abroad. “At first I left, I was afraid that they would just not let me go, then I wrote a statement,” said Gildeeva in her message, which she sent today to Russian blogger Ilya Varlamov. Gildeeva had been working on the channel since 2006 and in the past her professional career was recognized by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS. Agenzia Efe has temporarily suspended news production from Russia due to the threat posed to its journalists by the newly approved reform of the penal code. Efe will continue to report as far as possible from other places on this serious crisis.