A political activist and member of the rock band Pussy Riot has been sentenced by a Russian court for spreading “war fakes” on social media.
Lyusya Shtein has been handed a six-year prison sentence in absentia for the anti-war posts.
The 27-year-old was convicted in Moscow over a post on X in which she accused Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine of “bombing foreign cities and killing people”.
The court said Shtein, who was a Moscow municipal deputy until 2022, would begin her sentence once she could be extradited to Russia.
Pussy Riot, a feminist opposition group, rose to prominence by storming into Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in 2012, shouting out a song against Vladimir Putin.
Just weeks after the invasion of Ukraine began, Shtein fled house arrest in Moscow with her girlfriend and fellow Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina.
The pair put on the uniforms of Moscow’s food delivery couriers to evade police and sneak out of the city, eventually reaching Lithuania, Ms Alyokhina told The New York Times.
They settled in Iceland, which granted them citizenship in May 2023, according to local media there.
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