The news anchor who staged a live anti-war protest on Russian state TV has revealed how she managed to escape Russia. Marina Ovsyannikova, who held up a sign saying 'They’re lying to you here' and 'Stop the War!' was facing up to 10 years in jail before deciding to flee with her daughter Trina, 11.
Going public for the first time since she fled four months ago, the 44-year-old revealed how her lawyer had told her, “Run, run from Russia - you only have a few days left before the trial. They will definitely put you in jail.”
The Daily Star reports that in an escape befitting of a spy novel, she teamed up with Reporters Without Borders, changing cars seven times before reaching the border.
“We had two days to leave the territory of Russia,” she said. “Thank God, it worked out. I can’t tell in which direction we left, but I can say that we changed seven cars in the process.”
However, once she was in the second car, she suddenly realised she was still wearing an electronic tag put on her by the Russian authorities. "At the moment we were running away [from home], there was such nervousness,” she said. “My mother…came [to say goodbye].
“I forgot to remove the bracelet. It was when we had already changed the second car, I finally remembered about it.”
She cut it off and continued the escape, but there was more trouble ahead. She said: “Just before [crossing] the border something went wrong because the car got stuck in mud. We literally jumped out in a field.
"After some time we got from the field to a forest. We managed to cross the border eventually.”
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The journalist was formally invited to France by French President Emmanuel Macron, which she accepted.
She reiterated her support for Ukraine, saying: “I would like to express unlimited support to Ukraine’s people. It’s almost a year that they have been fighting for their land, for our future, for the future of the entire civilised world.”
Her son, 18, has remains in Moscow with her ex-husband, an employee of state propaganda broadcaster RT.
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