A brave journalist who staged a dramatic protest on Russian television says people have been ‘zombified’ by Putin.

Marina Ovsyannikova, 43, gatecrashed a live segment of Kremlin-controlled Channel One on Monday.

She boldly waved a sign that read: ‘NO WAR. Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here.’

Ms Ovsyannikova now says her motive was to wake up the ‘zombified’ nation watching.

She told the BBC: ‘I knew that if I went to protest in Central Square I would be arrested like everyone else and thrown into a police van and put on trial.

‘Half the poster was in Russian, half the poster was in English. I really wanted to show a western audience that some Russians are against the war.

‘To the Russians, I wanted to show them you are zombified by this Kremlin propaganda – don’t believe it.’

Ms Ovsyannikova was detained following her protest and conspiracy theories soon flooded through Russia.

Some claimed she was a ‘project of Western special forces’ while others said the protest had been staged following a personal conflict at work.

But the TV producer told the BBC she is ‘just a normal Russian woman’ who could ‘not remain indifferent after Russia invaded Ukraine.’

As a child, she lived in war-torn Chechnya’s Grozny region and was forced to flee fighting.

Her father is from Ukraine – a factor which also influenced her decision to stage such a public protest.

Ms Ovsyannikova was arrested, held without access to her lawyer and questioned for 14 hours following the incident.

This week, she appeared at a Moscow court and walked free after a judge fined her 30,000 roubles (£215.)

But it is feared the 43-year-old could still be hit with a prison sentence under new legislation brought in to stamp out ‘deliberately false information’ about the invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian law has made it a crime to call the conflict a ‘war’ and carries a jail sentence of up to 15 years.

While the world at large has applauded Ms Ovsyannikova’s actions, her relatives are more wary about the wider consequences.

She told the BBC: ‘My eldest son said that I had ruined the lives of the whole family.

‘He probably does not understand now, but I hope in the future my children will realise this sacrifice was not for nothing.

‘I don’t know what the future holds for us.’

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