Thread by @Telegraph

Beatings and psychological torture: The fate that awaits Russian dissidents like Marina Ovsyannikova

Marina Ovsyannikova could become Russia's first person prosecuted under a new war censorship law, writes @Nat_Vasilyeva

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telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…

🇷🇺The Russian state TV producer who stormed into the set of a primetime news broadcast on Monday night could be facing a decade of prison and psychological torture in detention

🔴Marina Ovsyannikova, has been hailed by the Russian opposition as the “hero of Russia” after running out to the set with a poster saying “No war! Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you here”.

She was promptly taken into detention

➡️She is sure to face the wrath of Russia’s law enforcement system, which was notorious for its treatment of dissidents even before the start of the war.

Since then, repression has only ramped up

🔴Anti-war protesters who have been taken into custody since the war have spoken of beatings and verbal abuse.

One activist published an audio that showed police officers in a Moscow police station violently interrogating and beating her

➡️The increasingly harsh treatment of anti-war protesters gave rise to fears that Russia might be moving towards the unrestrained violence against the opposition that Alexander Lukashenko unleashed in Belarus two years ago

🔴Marina Ovsyannikova, a mother of two, could become the first person to face criminal charges under a new law introduced a few days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

➡️The vaguely worded law carries a penalty ranging from a fine to up to 15 years in prison, and legal experts have so far been unsure as to how it will be applied

The war in Ukraine has emboldened some Kremlin loyalists to openly brand the celebrities who have spoken out against Mr Putin as traitors.

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telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…