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.

Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you”, was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian Armed Forces”. The 45-year old fled Russia with her daughter for an unspecified European country a year ago, according to her lawyer, saying she had no case to answer.