Famous, hated and loved, all in 6 seconds that completely turn her life upside down. It happened to Russian TV editor Marina Ovshannikova.
T on Russia’s main TV news, editor Marina Ovshannikova suddenly appeared behind the presenter with a placard that read ‘ No War’ and in Russian ‘Don’t believe the propaganda. They lie to you’. A year later, Ovshannikova on the run in the West publishes her book No War about the bizarre story that followed.
Reporters Without Borders
Russia calls her a British spy, her son doesn’t want to know anything about his mother since her action, Ukraine – where she wanted to go to show that not all Russians are bad – distrusts her. In the Amsterdam hotel, where the bookcases in the interview room are full of writers who previously gave a book presentation there, a seemingly calm, well-groomed blonde woman is sitting quietly with a coffee and a bottle of water.
Yet there are rumors that the Russian secret service FSB is after her. In Paris, where she currently lives, where she has helped her flee Russia through the organization Reporters Without Borders, including seven different cars, she regularly changes homes for that reason. “But I’m too tired to be afraid. Of course there are safety measures, I can’t elaborate on that. I joke: the FSB does not have enough money to kill all the dissidents.”
Questioned
She was interrogated for a long time after her action, but the authorities finally allowed her to go abroad. She was able to work temporarily for the German newspaper Die Welt until the management made it clear to her that they could no longer afford the security costs.
She reacts shocked when I tell her that she is the second Russian woman I interview. Years ago I interviewed the widow of Alexander Litvinenko, the defecting Russian spy who died in London in 2006 of polonium poisoning. Her name is also Marina. “My God! Yes, of course I remember that case. I was with the Eerste Zender for twenty years, and I was well informed.”
It raises the question why Ovshannikova didn’t put down her job sooner. As a foreign editor, unlike many Russians, she was able to follow all foreign channels recently. In fact, she had to. The focus was to pick fragments from the news in which the West came off badly. With some cutting and pasting, even a positive story got a negative charge.
Communism
Rumbling in foreign elections was not shunned. “Not at first, then we were still doing journalism as we had learned by hearing both sides, but more and more often we were told from the Kremlin what was and was not allowed. Not in black and white or anything, but just like under communism, we were taught what could and could not be said. For example, Donald Trump had to be exposed positively and Hillary Clinton had to be ridiculed. The incident in which Clinton became unwell on the street in New York has been repeated over and over again. We could call foreign politicians who are pro-Putin.”
Around the disaster of flight MH17, the official message was also that the plane had been shot down by Ukrainian soldiers, “but everyone in our editorial office knew: it was a Russian Buk missile, fired by Russian troops. I think that in the quiet, good Netherlands, the realization first dawned on what a criminal Putin is.”
Returning to the question of why she did not stop sooner: “I had two children, a difficult relationship with my husband. I had just bought a house. And where could I go? Independent media had already left, but the war in Ukraine was the last straw. I couldn’t handle the propaganda anymore, couldn’t lie anymore, wanted to get out of the lie factory. No more brainwashing.”
It put your life turned upside down, your son says you destroyed the family, your husband filed a lawsuit against you, your mother believes Putin before you…
“Yes, e n still I would do it again. We need to make clear what kind of man Putin really is.”
When asked if she is not alone in that struggle, she says firmly: “No, a lot of people are like me. Two million people have fled the country, hundreds thrown in jail for opposing Putin.”
Five wars in twenty years of Putin
She looks in disbelief at Western leaders who are still making overtures to the Russian president, whom they refuse to call a dictator. “Putin is going the same way as Lukashenko, the president of Belarus who killed the democratic forces. If you are against him, he will destroy you. In 20 years of Putin, we have seen five wars: two Chechen, then Georgia, then the Donbas, Syria, and now Ukraine. If we don’t stop him, he will also attack Moldova, the Baltic States, maybe even Poland. The West must persevere. Putin is in the same category as Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. You don’t talk to that. The West must understand that.”
Ovshannikova puts her hand in her bosom. “At the Eerste Zender we have also created the image of Tsar Putin. We never allowed anything negative to come near him. I would like to change that image. I want to see the cowardly war criminal.”
She laughs when asked what she would ask Putin first if she could interview him. The idea that such a thing could be possible is too absurd for words. After a moment of thought: “When are you leaving?”