Russian Police Raid Home of Protesting Journo

This could mark a turn toward harsher punishment for Marina Ovsyannikova
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 10, 2022 10:50 AM CDT
Protesting Russian Journo: 'Police Stormed Into My House'
Marina Ovsyannikova, a former Russian state TV journalist who quit after making an on-air protest of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, sits in a court room prior to a hearing in Moscow, Russia, July 28, 2022.   (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

The Russian journalist who was fined, then arrested for speaking out against Russia's war in Ukraine had her door kicked in by Russian security forces in a Wednesday raid, according to media human rights group OVD-Info. Marina Ovsyannikova is now to be taken in front of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, a federal body comparable to the FBI, Politico reports, citing OVD-Info lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov, who's assisting Ovsyannikova. He said the raid is likely linked to a protest last month, where Ovsyannikova held a banner that read in part, "Putin is a killer, his soldiers are fascists," per the AP.

"At 6 in the morning while I was still sleeping, dozens of employees of the Investigative Committee and the police stormed into my house," Ovsyannikova wrote on messaging app Telegram, per the Times. "They scared my little daughter. Now I am being taken to the Investigative Committee." The 44-year-old former state TV producer was initially fined for interrupting a live broadcast on state-run Channel One in March. The AP reports she's been fined twice in recent weeks "for disparaging the military" in a Facebook post and at a court hearing for Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who's accused of the same crime, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The latter fine was around $820, per the Moscow Times. (More Marina Ovsyannikova stories.)

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