Protester with ‘No War’ sign marches on Russian state TV set – NBC Chicago
Grover C. Magnus
2 min read
A live evening news program on Russia’s state-run television channel was interrupted on Monday by someone who walked into the studio with a poster protesting the war in Ukraine.
The moment was a risky protest in a country where independent media have been blocked or shut down and where it has become illegal to contradict the government’s war narrative.
A presenter was speaking during the newscast when a woman appeared on camera behind her, holding a sign with ‘no war’ scrawled in English at the top, with a message in Russian below calling on people not to believe the propaganda Russian.
Within seconds, the news program switched to another scene.
Russian state television regularly amplifies the government line that troops entered Ukraine to save people from “neo-Nazis” and to defend Russians from a country preparing to attack. The invasion of Ukraine is described in Russia as a “special military operation”.
Speaking in a video address early Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the woman for taking a stand.
People in Russia have limited access to information from outside their country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed into law a measure that criminalizes the dissemination of information considered by the Kremlin to be “fake” news, which carries a 15-year prison sentence.
Media outlets and individuals who publish information that deviates from Putin’s narrative are targeted.
Blockages have been imposed on the BBC, the US government-funded Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvian site Meduza.
Russia has also blocked social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
This is a live update. Click here for comprehensive coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.
