Russian journalist who made TV protest against Vladimir Putin fears she has been poisoned
Marina Ovsyannikova, who made headlines for her protest against Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine on Russian state TV, fears that she has been poisoned after being hospitalised in France.
A Russian journalist who protested against Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine on state TV may have been poisoned.
Marina Ovsyannikova was hospitalised on Thursday (12.10.23) after suddenly falling ill as she left her apartment in Paris and the French capital's prosecutor's office said that she suspected that she had been poisoned.
Police are examining her apartment and an investigation has started, the prosecutor's office added.
Ovsyannikova made headlines across the world last year when she appeared behind the anchor of an evening news broadcast on Russian state TV with a sign that said: "Stop the war, don't believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here."
The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders helped Ovsyannikova flee Russia and confirmed that its team had been "at her side" during the episode.
The group does not have any more information about how the incident happened.
Ovsyannikova was charged with disparaging the Russian military and fined 30,000 rubles for her television protest. She then demonstrated again near the Kremlin in July 2022 and was detained and placed under house arrest before escaping to France with her daughter.
Earlier this month, she was sentenced to eight and a half years in jail in absentia for spreading false information about the Russian army.
It is the latest example of Moscow's crackdown on dissent which has intensified since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.
