1. Marina Vladimirovna Ovsyannikova is a Russian journalist who was employed on the Channel One Russia television channel.
25 Facts About Marina Ovsyannikova
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Marina Ovsyannikova worked for Russia's main evening newscast Vremya on Channel One since the beginning of the 2000s, later describing her role as "producing Kremlin propaganda".
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Marina Ovsyannikova was arrested, held without access to her lawyer, fined 30,000 rubles, and later released.
4.
Marina Ovsyannikova's mother is Russian, and her father is Ukrainian.
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Marina Ovsyannikova lived with her mother in Grozny until the start of the Chechen War, but then they moved to Krasnodar.
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Marina Ovsyannikova graduated from the Kuban State University and later from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
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Marina Ovsyannikova worked for the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.
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Marina Ovsyannikova retroactively described herself as "having spent many years producing Kremlin propaganda" while working for Channel One.
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Marina Ovsyannikova initially supported Putin, but images of the war in Ukraine brought back memories of the war she experienced as a child in Chechnya.
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Marina Ovsyannikova had planned to protest near the Kremlin, but later decided it was not very useful.
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Clips of Marina Ovsyannikova's protest were widely shared around the world and attracted substantial global media coverage.
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The BBC reported that Marina Ovsyannikova's protest had drawn attention to a gradual stream of resignations from Russian state-run TV, with three others emerging within hours.
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Marina Ovsyannikova's lawyer was not able to contact or even locate her for more than 12 hours.
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Marina Ovsyannikova stated that she rejected asylum in France, and was to stay in Russia with her children.
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On 25 May 2022, during the annual Oslo Freedom Forum in Oslo, Norway, Marina Ovsyannikova received the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.
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Between 27 and 31 May 2022, Marina Ovsyannikova visited Ukraine as a freelance correspondent for Die Welt.
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Marina Ovsyannikova was later released, after being ordered to spend the night at Moscow police headquarters.
18.
On 17 October 2022, Marina Ovsyannikova's lawyer confirmed she had fled Russia "to one of the European countries, where she is under protection".
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On 10 February 2023, Marina Ovsyannikova gave a press conference in Paris, France, where she now resides, and described how she was assisted by Reporters Without Borders in fleeing the country.
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Marina Ovsyannikova was offered asylum by French president Emmanuel Macron after her on-air protest, and was at the time of her escape living in various safehouses in France.
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Marina Ovsyannikova was tried in absentia in Russia and on 4 October 2023 was sentenced to 8.5 years jail term for "spreading false information" about the Russian Army.
22.
News of Marina Ovsyannikova being hired as a correspondent to cover the Russian invasion of Ukraine for Die Welt led to protests in Berlin by the Ukrainian community and war refugees due to her previous work for Russian media.
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In Ukraine, despite having been praised by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Marina Ovsyannikova is largely regarded as a propagandist of Russian official viewpoint and her appearance on TV was ignored or held against her.
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Marina Ovsyannikova is married to Igor Ovsyannikov, a television director for RT.
25.
Marina Ovsyannikova has relatives in Ukraine, but she does not have much contact with them.