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Between Good and Evil: How I Finally Opposed the Kremlin Propaganda
A Russian state journalist boldly protests the country’s invasion of Ukraine by holding a banner during the evening newscast.
On March 14, 2022, Marina Ovsyannikova raised a banner on the main evening news of Russian television with the inscription “Stop the war. Don't believe the propaganda." in English. She was immediately taken to the police station where various investigators interrogated her for almost a day. Working in the international newsroom, Marina Ovsyannikova has long known that the Kremlin was constantly lying to the Russian people.
The war in Ukraine became a point of no return for her—it was impossible to remain silent any longer. In order to tell people the truth, she sacrificed home, family, work, and a prosperous life.
The daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother, Marina Ovsyannikova subtly felt the tragedy of the Ukrainian people. As a child, she experienced the same thing that Ukrainian refugees are now experiencing when her house in Grozny was destroyed during the First Chechen War.
The live protest was the start of an incredible ordeal. Ovsyannikova continued to work as a journalist from abroad, trying to cover the conflict in Ukraine, but accidentally found herself in the midst of an information war. In Russia, she was accused of having links with the British Embassy, and in Ukraine, she was accused of working for the Russian special services (FSB). Ovsyannikova became the object of constant bullying on the internet, and her ex-husband, who works in the top management of RT (Russia Today), sued her to try to take her children away. Her son and her mother already turned away from her, so she had no choice but to put her life in incredible danger and fly back to Moscow to fight for her young daughter.
Marina Ovsyannikova was arrested for speaking out against the war. She spent the night in prison, after which the judge placed her under house arrest. She faced up to ten years in prison under a new criminal article. A few days before the trial, by some miracle, Ovsyannikova managed to escape from house arrest with her daughter. The Russian authorities put her on the international wanted list.
On March 14, 2022, Marina Ovsyannikova raised a banner on the main evening news of Russian television with the inscription “Stop the war. Don't believe the propaganda." in English. She was immediately taken to the police station where various investigators interrogated her for almost a day. Working in the international newsroom, Marina Ovsyannikova has long known that the Kremlin was constantly lying to the Russian people.
The war in Ukraine became a point of no return for her—it was impossible to remain silent any longer. In order to tell people the truth, she sacrificed home, family, work, and a prosperous life.
The daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother, Marina Ovsyannikova subtly felt the tragedy of the Ukrainian people. As a child, she experienced the same thing that Ukrainian refugees are now experiencing when her house in Grozny was destroyed during the First Chechen War.
The live protest was the start of an incredible ordeal. Ovsyannikova continued to work as a journalist from abroad, trying to cover the conflict in Ukraine, but accidentally found herself in the midst of an information war. In Russia, she was accused of having links with the British Embassy, and in Ukraine, she was accused of working for the Russian special services (FSB). Ovsyannikova became the object of constant bullying on the internet, and her ex-husband, who works in the top management of RT (Russia Today), sued her to try to take her children away. Her son and her mother already turned away from her, so she had no choice but to put her life in incredible danger and fly back to Moscow to fight for her young daughter.
Marina Ovsyannikova was arrested for speaking out against the war. She spent the night in prison, after which the judge placed her under house arrest. She faced up to ten years in prison under a new criminal article. A few days before the trial, by some miracle, Ovsyannikova managed to escape from house arrest with her daughter. The Russian authorities put her on the international wanted list.
185 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 13, 2023
63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 22, 2023
In dit best wel spannende boek schrijft de journaliste die voor de Russische staatstelevisie werkt over haar ervaringen vóór en na die keer dat ze met een protestbord live de uitzending van het propaganda-kanaal verstoorde.
Op dit bord schreef ze:
NO WAR, STOP DE OORLOG, GELOOF DE PROPAGANDA NIET, JULLIE WORDEN HIER VOORGELOGEN, RUSSIANS AGAINST WAR!
Russen worden namelijk al decennialang voorgelogen, maar onder Poetin schakelde deze propaganda nog een stapje hoger. Alles over Rusland moet positief zijn, alles over het westen negatief, en voor en na een nieuwsitem over Poetin, moet er ook een positief item worden getoond!
Wie de boeken van Bill Browder kent, zal de gelijkenissen snel zien. Wanneer de Russische staat achter jou komt, verandert jouw leven in een nachtmerrie!
Op dit bord schreef ze:
NO WAR, STOP DE OORLOG, GELOOF DE PROPAGANDA NIET, JULLIE WORDEN HIER VOORGELOGEN, RUSSIANS AGAINST WAR!
Russen worden namelijk al decennialang voorgelogen, maar onder Poetin schakelde deze propaganda nog een stapje hoger. Alles over Rusland moet positief zijn, alles over het westen negatief, en voor en na een nieuwsitem over Poetin, moet er ook een positief item worden getoond!
Wie de boeken van Bill Browder kent, zal de gelijkenissen snel zien. Wanneer de Russische staat achter jou komt, verandert jouw leven in een nachtmerrie!
June 12, 2024
A short, but compelling book. While the author spent good years of her life supporting Putin's propaganda machine, the war in 2022 proved too much. And she acted.
The book explains how her life experiences set her for opposition, how she lost and then found herself, what the outcome was, and how she escaped. It is interesting how Russian propaganda works to discredit opponents who run away, spreading the rumours that they are plants. Saw the same thing with Elena Kostyuchenko.
A book to consider before jumping to conclusions.
The book explains how her life experiences set her for opposition, how she lost and then found herself, what the outcome was, and how she escaped. It is interesting how Russian propaganda works to discredit opponents who run away, spreading the rumours that they are plants. Saw the same thing with Elena Kostyuchenko.
A book to consider before jumping to conclusions.
June 16, 2023
Hyvä, että tämä karu teos Putinin hirmuhallinnosta on nyt julki ja sen kirjoittaja turvassa länsieurooppalaisessa oikeusvaltiossa. Ei-venäläisenä olisin tosin toivonut kirjoittajalta vielä enemmän syventävää tietoa Venäjän oloista, eli kirja olisi kaikin mokomin voinut olla vielä paksumpi.
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June 26, 2023ar fi fost chiar ok daca nu ar fi fost real... horror, dar necesara lectura
October 12, 2023
A lire pour mieux comprendre la guerre Russe et Ukraine.
January 24, 2025
Karmaiseva ja jännittävä tosikertomus siitä mitä on olla rohkea toisinajatteleva Putinin Venäjällä. Tämän rinnalla dystooppinen fiktio kalpenee.
August 3, 2023
Orwell was right
Read this to open your eyes to the depths of Putin’s reinvention of Russia. A dictator, isolated and surrounded only by servile apparatchiks. A ministry of information promoting fiction. We know Marina Ovsyannikova from a few seconds of televised protest. There is so much more to her story. Pray for Russia.
Read this to open your eyes to the depths of Putin’s reinvention of Russia. A dictator, isolated and surrounded only by servile apparatchiks. A ministry of information promoting fiction. We know Marina Ovsyannikova from a few seconds of televised protest. There is so much more to her story. Pray for Russia.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews