LONDON (Reuters) – An anti-war protester burst onto the TV news set of the country’s leading public channel, Russia’s most watched, on Monday night, holding up a placard denouncing the war in Ukraine.
Written in English and Russian, the sign read “No war. Don’t believe the propaganda, we are lying to you here”.
The demonstrator, who accompanied her gesture with slogans hostile to the war, remained on the air for a few seconds before the control room cut the image to broadcast a report.
Russian state television is the main source of news for millions of Russians. It faithfully relays the line of the Kremlin according to which Russia was forced to intervene in Ukraine, in particular to save the Russian-speaking population from a genocide, which kyiv refutes.
According to Pavel Chikov, leader of the human rights movement Agora, the young woman was arrested and taken to a police station in Moscow.
Tass news agency reports that she could face multiple charges under a law prohibiting discrediting the Russian armed forces.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan in London and Conor Humphries in Dublin; editing by Grant McCool)
by Mark Trevelyan and Conor Humphries