A Russian TV journalist who interrupted a broadcast to protest the war in Ukraine has been arrested and released by police.
Marina Ovsyannikova’s friends wrote on Telegram on Sunday that she had been detained - having demonstrated alone near the Kremlin against Vladimir Putin. Pictures on the social media network from Friday showed her with a sign calling the premier a ‘killer’.
Sunday's statement included images of her being led by two police officers to a white van.
An update on her Instagram read: “Went for a walk with the dogs, just stepped outside the gate, people in uniform approached me. Now I'm sitting in the Krasnoselsky OVD, waiting for a lawyer. The dogs were left without dinner and an evening walk…”
Later on Sunday she uploaded a picture onto Facebook with the two dogs.
The second statement added: “I'm home now. Everything is okey (sic). It was China's "first warning”.
“But now I know that it's better to leave home with a bag and a passport just in case. Thanks to the neighbour who was nearby at that moment. He brought me stuff and called my lawyer and friends.”
Her lawyer Dmitri Zakhvatov told Ria-Novosti news agency: “I assume that it is linked one way or another to her act of protest.”
Ms Ovsyannikova gained worldwide attention in March when she burst into an evening news broadcast on Channel One - where she worked - with a placard headed ‘no war’.
After refusing asylum in France, she took up a role as a freelance correspondent for Die Welt, writing for its German newspaper and appearing live on the media company’s TV news channel.
Ms Ovsyannikova had previously told media of her resolve to stay in Russia.
“I don’t want to leave Russia. I am a patriot,” she told German news site Der Spiegel.
