It was a jaw-dropping moment when for a few seconds a young woman interrupted a live news broadcast on Russian state media to wave a sign that said: “Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you.”
What made the instance so noteworthy is the lengths to which Vladimir Putin has gone after his invasion of Ukraine to cut Russians off from sources of independent information and social media, including Facebook and Twitter.
The blond woman, dressed soberly in a black suit, had but a moment to make her point behind a robotic-sounding anchor reading the TelePrompter. Soon enough, First Channel cut to a generic scene in a hospital.
Russian police detained the protester, according to Tass news service. OVD-Info, a legal defense group, identified her as an employee of First Channel.
Tass cited an anonymous law-enforcement source saying she could be charged with an administrative violation for “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces.
First Channel is Kremlin-backed and one of the primary tools of Putin’s messaging campaign to rewrite the narrative of the war for more than 140 million Russians.
- The Case for Mediocrity
- How Russia Is Recruiting Cubans to Fight in Ukraine
- Paul Hollywood Answers All of Your Questions About The Great British Baking Show
- Meet the 2023 TIME100 Next: the Emerging Leaders Shaping the World
- Oprah and Arthur C. Brooks: How to Separate Work From Your Identity
- How Canada and India's Relationship Crumbled
- You Don’t Have to Like Wrestling to Love Netflix’s Excellent Wrestlers
- The Most Anticipated Books, Movies, TV, and Music of Fall 2023
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
