Offensive in Ukraine: Marina Ovsiannikova, the Russian anti-war muse, refuses Macron’s asylum offer – archyde

She prefers to stay in Russia. Russian journalist Marina Ovsiannikova, who became an anti-war muse after appearing during a pro-Kremlin newscast, the Russian presidency, to denounce the war in Ukraine, refuses the offer of asylum made by French President Emmanuel Macron. I don’t want to leave our country. I am a patriot, my son is even more so. We don’t want to leave under any circumstances, we don’t want to go anywhere, “she said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel broadcast Wednesday evening. Emmanuel Macron said he was ready on Tuesday to offer “consular protection to Marina Ovsiannikova. She could have gone to the embassy or obtained asylum. This 43-year-old woman distinguished herself by bursting live on Monday evening during the most watched television news in Russia, on the Pervy Kanal channel, where she is a producer. She held up a placard criticizing the military operation of Moscow, the Russian capital, in Ukraine and denouncing the “propaganda” of the media controlled by the power. a simple fine and left free. However, she still risks criminal prosecution punishable by heavy prison terms, under the terms of a recent law repressing any “false information” about the Russian army. “It’s a war against a brotherly people! No sane person can accept it,” says the young woman born in Odessa, Ukraine, to a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother. Marina Ovsiannikova believes that her stunt “was above all a pacifist action. It is in Russia’s and the world’s interest to end this war as soon as possible.” “I also wanted to show that Russians are against this war, which a lot of people in the West don’t understand. The majority of intelligent and educated people here oppose this war,” she said. She indicates that she prepared her action alone, without having first spoken to her family or friends. “Most people who work for national television understand very well what is going on. They know only too well that they are doing something wrong. They are not convinced propagandists, often anything but that! “, she adds. “They constantly struggle internally between their work and their own moral compass (…) But the colleagues have to feed their families. They know that in the current political climate, they will not find another job”, specifies the journalist who says she is “happy” that several Russian journalists from public channels have resigned in recent days to oppose the restrictions on information. .