Russian journalist who staged TV war protest handed 8 1/2 year jail term in absentia

Former Russian state TV employee Marina Ovsyannikova, who staged an anti-war protest on live state television and was later charged with public activity aimed at discrediting the Russian army amid Ukraine-Russia conflict, attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, July 28, 2022. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

MOSCOW — A Russian court sentenced former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you”, to eight and half years in jail in absentia on Wednesday.

Ovsyannikova was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian Armed Forces”, according to a statement posted by the court on Telegram.

Ovsyannikova, 45, fled Russia with her daughter for an unspecified European country a year ago after escaping from house arrest, according to her lawyer, saying she had no case to answer.

She had staged her original protest less than three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, in what it called a “special military operation”.