Ovsyannikova's press conference had been organized through a Dutch philanthropist and "StopCor"

The press conference with russian propagandist Marina Ovsyannikova had been organized by Interfax-Ukraine at the request of Die Welt, where she now works as a columnist, with the help of Dutch volunteer and philanthropist Мariam Lambert and Ukrainian public and media organization Stop Corruption (StopCor). Oleksandr Martynenko, Director General of Interfax-Ukraine, told Detector Media about this.

According to him, Mariam Lambert-Ait Hassou, founder of the Dutch charity Orphans Feeding Foundation, asked StopCor on behalf of Die Welt to "help organize a press conference in Kyiv." Those in turn spoke to the news agency.

Detector Media will try to get confirmation of this information and some comments from StopCor representatives. The publication tried to call Olena Revenko, the event's moderator, but she did not pick up the phone.

Stop Corruption is a non-governmental organization headed by former Inter journalist Roman Bochkala and human rights activist Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The organization has a number of projects, including "StopCor" online publication, and collaborates with international donors and NGO networks.

Meanwhile, Hromadske Radio reported, citing their sources, that the rector of the Shevchenko National University of Kyiv had been asked to "assist in organizing a meeting of students from the Institute of Journalism of Kyiv National University with human rights activist Amy Karr and russian citizen Marina Ovsyannikova." The letter mentioned the period of Ovsyannikova's stay in Kyiv – from May 30 to June 3. According to Hromadske Radio, the head of the Institute of Journalism, Volodymyr Rizun, refused the meeting. 

The letter, quoted by Hromadske Radio, said that Ovsyannikova would be in Ukraine with "famous human rights activist Amy Karr, director of humanitarian affairs at the Human Rights Foundation." Amy Karr represents the organization that nominated Ovsyannikova for the Vaclav Havel Prize and is currently in Ukraine.

As IMI reported, a press conference featuring russian propagandist and now freelance journalist of the German newspaper Die Welt Marina Ovsyannikova had been scheduled for June 1, but was canceled. Oleksandr Martynenko, Director General of Interfax-Ukraine, said that the agency had canceled a press conference with russian citizen Marina Ovsyannikova due to "negative public response."

In the beginning of March, Ovsyannikova entered the studio during an allegedly live "Vremya" broadcast with a "No war" poster. The video recording of this part of the broadcast has been uploaded to YouTube. Later, the russian quit her work at the propaganda channel.

The Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security has reported that Ovsyannikova is currently an active asset in russian informational and psychological operations. Namely, she has gained recognition and credibility in the West and is using it to promote the narrative about the "necessity" of lifting the sanctions to Western audience.

German media outlet Die Welt has hired Ovsyannikova as a correspondent.

On April 14, Ukrainian activists in Berlin demanded that Die Welt media group fires the former editor of russian propaganda channel "Pervyy" Marina Ovsyannikova.

On April 21, the German Weimer Media Group (WMG) gave the Media Freedom Award to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanowskaya and the former editor of the russian propaganda channel "Pervyy" Marina Ovsyannikova.

The National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting called on the German Weimer Media Group to refrain from awarding the Media Prize for Freedom to russian propagandist Marina Ovsyannikova.

After this, she was excluded from the list of winners of the German Media Freedom Award.

In May, Marina Ovsyannikova was awarded the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum 2022.