Russian TV station accuses hero presenter of being a British spy

Russian TV station accuses hero presenter of being a British spy and ‘speaking to UK embassy in Moscow’ shortly before staging her brave on-air anti-war protest

  • Marina Ovsyannikova has been accused of being a spy by a Russian TV presenter
  • Channel One host Kirill Kleymenov claimed she spoke with the British embassy
  • The Russian journalist protested the war live on state television with a placard

Russian protester Marina Ovsyannikova has been accused of being a spy who ‘spoke to the British embassy in Moscow’ shortly before she interrupted a live news broadcast on the country’s main state channel. 

The 43-year-old journalist gained international attention when she walked behind a news presenter with a stunning anti-war TV message that said ‘Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you’.

The claim came from Kirill Kleymenov, deputy general director of Channel One and a top presenter, who called out her ‘betrayal’ and implied she was a ‘traitor’.

He suggested she had consorted with British diplomats in her dramatic statement against Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The former Russian Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova, who held an anti-war poster on Russian TV (pictured), has been accused of being a British spy by a Russian news host

Ovsyannikova (pictured) was accused of speaking with the British embassy based in Moscow before her live on-air protest by her former boss Kirill Kleymenov

Kirill Kleymenov (pictured) said Ovsyannikova had betrayed her country and called her a traitor, although he did not provide any evidence to back up his claims she was in contact with the British embassy

‘Prior to [going on air with her anti-war poster], according to our information, Marina Ovsyannikova spoke with the British embassy,’ said Kleymenov.

‘Which one of you was on the phone with a foreign embassy?’

Ovsyannikova carried a poster and walked in on Russia’s most-watched news show and told viewers ‘They’re lying to you here’ and ‘Stop the War!’

Her boss at the channel, Kleymenov, hit back: ‘Emotional impulse is one thing.

‘But betrayal is something else.’

He alleged in her TV stunt she betrayed her country ‘and at the same time all of us, people with whom he has worked side by side for almost 20 years’.

Ovsyannikova was fined just $210 by a court over the protest – sparking fears that more punishment could still await her

‘She betrays coldly, prudently, for a firmly agreed [financial] bonus – by the way, so as not to lose her previous one.

‘The woman with the poster timed the action exactly to receive her next salary payment – so betrayal is always one’s personal choice.’

He went on: ‘It is necessary to call things by their proper names.

‘Otherwise, if the famous action for 30 pieces of silver coins were called an impulse of the soul, the history of the world would be different.

‘Just in case, I wish everyone good health.

‘To all without exception. Even traitors. They have to continue to live with this burden.’

Kleymenov provided no further evidence of British involvement, or his accusation that she was paid for the stunt. 

The accusation comes amid a collapse in relations between Britain – along with other Western countries – and Russia over Putin’s invasion of sovereign Ukraine.

Ovsyannikova turned down an offer of political asylum in France but may face criminal charges in Moscow.

The British embassy is understood to have no record of any phone call with Ovsyannikova.

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