MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former Russian television journalist Marina Ovsiannikova was fined 50,000 rubles ($820) on Thursday after being found guilty of discrediting the country’s armed forces in messages published on social networks.
The decision was made after a brief hearing in an administrative court in Moscow. Marina Ovsiannikova called the proceedings against her “absurd”.
The journalist caught the world’s attention in March after bursting into a Russian state television studio during a newscast to denounce the war in Ukraine. At the time, she was fined 30,000 rubles for violating the protest law.
Thursday’s hearing focused on social media posts in which she wrote that those responsible for Russia’s actions in Ukraine would find themselves in the dock before an international tribunal.
In early March, shortly after President Vladimir Putin launched what he calls a “special military operation” against Ukraine, Russia passed a law against the “discrediting” of the armed forces, punishable by up to go up to 15 years.
In court, Marina Ovsiannikova said she would not go back on her words.
She described Russia as an aggressor country, saying, “The start of this war is our government’s greatest crime.”
(Reuters report, French version Federica Mileo, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)
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