[imagesource: AFP]
Criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decisions to send troops to Ukraine has been outlawed in Russia.
The draconian laws could mean a jail term of up to 15 years for anyone who has been charged with spreading information about the military deemed false by the authorities.
Basically, any public criticism of the war is now a criminal offence under Putin’s watch.
That’s why when that brave as hell editor at Russia’s state-controlled Channel 1 went on live TV to protest against Russia with a poster that read “no war” she was fined and charged by law enforcement.
The Guardian reported that Ukrainian-born 44-year-old Marina Ovsyannikova was fined 30 000 roubles (around R9 000) for shunning protest laws, but still, she got right back on the horse and continued her protest.
She apparently held a lone protest in mid-July near the Kremlin carrying a poster that read “Putin is a murderer. His soldiers are fascists.”
She was subsequently charged in August with spreading false information about the Russian army and placed under house arrest until October 9 when she was supposed to await a trial that could see her face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
But according to Ovsyannikova’s ex-husband, she has escaped house arrest together with her 11-year-old daughter.
Her name has now been added to the ministry’s wanted list, notes CBS News, making her a fugitive in Russia:
Following her release [after the initial protest], she told Reuters that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February invasion of the neighboring country was a “trigger” for her, as she grew up in Chechnya.
“Very vivid images from my childhood came flooding back. I understood. I could feel what these unfortunate people are going through. It’s really beyond the pale,” Ovsyannikova had said. “It was impossible for me to remain silent anymore. … And ordinary people like me — ordinary Russian women — need to do something about it. Everyone in Russia.”
The state-run news outlet Russia Today reported that Ovsyannikova’s whereabouts were unknown.
Holding thumbs that she can keep on keeping on.
Besides possible jail terms and fines, we all know what happens to those who cross Putin, be it falling out of a window or being poisoned.