Russian Journalist Who Famously Protested Ukraine War On Live TV Sentenced For Second Protest

The case against Ovsyannikova was launched in July 2022 after she unfolded a poster near the Kremlin saying: "Putin Is A Murderer, His Soldiers Are Fascists."

Former Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been sentenced in absentia to 8 1/2 years in prison for an anti-war demonstration she made in front of the Kremlin last year.

Ovsyannikova first shot to global attention in March 2022 when she protested Russia's invasion of Ukraine by interrupting a live news broadcast.

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The Basmanny district court pronounced the sentence on October 4 after finding Ovsyannikova guilty of distributing "false information" about Russian armed forces involved in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, saying she was "motivated by political hatred."

The case against Ovsyannikova was launched in July last year after she unfolded a poster near the Kremlin saying: "Putin Is A Murderer, His Soldiers Are Fascists," with photos of Ukrainian children killed during attack by Russia's armed forces against Ukrainian civilians.

She was placed under house arrest in August after police searched her apartment in the Russian capital but fled the country in October with her 11-year-old daughter after a Moscow court ruled that the young girl must stay with her father because her mother "is involved in political activities."

The couple was divorced years before the protest actions.

The Interior Ministry then added Ovsyannikova to its wanted list, saying that she violated the conditions of her house arrest.

Ovsyannikova gained international recognition on March 14, 2022, when she burst onto the set of Channel One's Vremya news program holding a poster reading: “Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you,” in Russian. She also shouted: "Stop the war! No to war!"

The Ukraine-born Ovsyannikova was a producer with Channel One at the time of her protest. She was later detained and fined 30,000 rubles ($300) by a court for calling for illegal protests.

A law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March last year -- well after Ovsyannikova's first protest but before her second demonstration -- provides for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations.

Ovsyannikova resigned from Channel One and spent several months abroad, including in Ukraine, repeatedly expressing her condemnation of the war.

Russia refers to the full-scale conflict in Ukraine, which it launched in February 2022, as a "special military operation." It is forbidden to publicly call it a war and those who do face stiff penalties, including lengthy sentences.