About a month after her anti-war position in Ukraine during a pro-Kremlin television news, Marina Ovsiannikova has just landed a new job. This Russian journalist becomes a correspondent in Ukraine and Russia for the major German daily Die Welt.
In a press release published on Monday April 11, the editor of the Welt group, Ulf Poschardt, salutes his new recruit who “had the courage, at a decisive moment, to confront television viewers in Russia with an undiluted image of reality. She thus defended the most important journalistic virtues, despite the threat of state repression”.
Marina Ovsiannikova also welcomed this new collaboration. “Welt represents what is rightly defended so vehemently in Ukraine by the courageous people there: freedom. As a journalist, I consider it my duty to defend this freedom,” she said.
As a reminder, in mid-March, this 43-year-old Russian journalist appeared live, during the most watched television news in Russia, with a sign criticizing Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine and denouncing “propaganda”. government-controlled media.
Briefly arrested, Marina Ovsiannikova was sentenced to a simple fine but could, under a recent law repressing any “false information” on the Russian army, be subject to criminal proceedings punishable by heavy prison sentences.
The Kremlin steps up repression of opponents
The president of the lower house of the Russian Parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, notably proposed on Monday that the protesting journalist be stripped of her Russian nationality, as well as all the “traitors” opposed to the offensive in Ukraine.
Referring to Marina Ovsiannikova’s collaboration with the German daily Die Welt, he made no secret of his disapproval: “Now she is going to work for a NATO country, justify arms deliveries to Ukrainian neo-Nazis, the sending foreign mercenaries to fight our soldiers and defend the sanctions against Russia”.
Then specifying, on his Telegram channel, that “there is no procedure for forfeiture of citizenship and prohibition of entry” in Russia, the head of the Duma nevertheless suggested remedying this: “maybe be that it would be good?
In recent weeks, the Kremlin has stepped up its crackdown on opponents of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Thousands of protesters have been arrested, independent media shackled and the social networks of “traitors” blocked. People who have made anti-war remarks have even seen threatening messages appear on the door of their accommodation.