A court in Moscow has given a journalist named Marina Ovsyannikova a prison sentence of 8. 5She protested on live television against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The person, who is 45 years old, was not present at their trial. They were found guilty of sharing untrue information about the Russian armed forces, knowing it was untrue.
Last year, she ran away from being kept at home and left Russia with her daughter. She thinks the charges are ridiculous.
Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022.
However, in Russia it is against the law to refer to the war as an “invasion”. The government tells news organizations to call it a “special military operation”.
Many people have been imprisoned or given money penalties for criticizing the country’s military. This crackdown on voicing disagreement is said to be the strongest under President Vladimir Putin.
On Wednesday, the court in Moscow said that Maria Ovsyannikova was given a prison sentence of eight years and six months in a jail.
It also stopped her from using anything related to electronic media, like the internet, for four years.
The person was charged not long after they protested close to Moscow’s Kremlin, where President Putin lives, in July 2022.
During the protest, she held a sign with Russian words saying “Putin is a killer. ” His soldiers are extremely right-wing and have oppressive beliefs.
During the trial, some members of the Ovsyannikova family, such as her ex-husband and son, testified on behalf of the prosecution, as reported by Russia’s Mediazone website.
It is not known where Ovsyannikova is right now. She said that the accusations against her are related to politics and not based on the truth.
She wrote in a statement before the verdict that she definitely didn’t admit to being guilty.
She said that she made a really hard but the only right moral decision and now has to live away from her home.
Ovsyannikova made news in March 2022 when she interrupted a live news broadcast on Channel One TV. She held a sign saying, “no war, stop the war; don’t believe the propaganda; they’re lying to you here”.
Even though the Russian authorities are after her, many Ukrainian journalists and Russian dissidents do not trust Ovsyannikova because of her previous work for the Russian state media.
Last summer, she went to Ukraine to report on the war for Germany’s Die Welt newspaper. This made many Ukrainians very angry and they wanted her to be fired right away.