A Russian editor who protested Moscow’s military action in Ukraine during a prime-time news broadcast on state TV has been fined and released following a court hearing.

Marina Ovsyannikova staged an extraordinary show of dissent on Monday night when she held up an anti-war sign behind a studio presenter reading the news on Channel One and shouted slogans condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A judge with Moscow’s Ostankinsky district court on Tuesday ordered Ovsyannikova to pay a fine of 30,000 rubles (about $280) after she ran onto the set of Russia’s most-watched evening news broadcast holding a poster reading “No war, stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here.”

“Stop the war. No to war,” the protester could be heard shouting, as the news anchor continued to read from a teleprompter.
Ovsyannikova, a Channel One employee, was found guilty of flouting protest laws, the court said. It was not immediately clear if she could also face other, more serious charges. Her lawyer was not immediately reachable for comment.