Russia sentences Pussy Riot activist to eight years for Ukraine 'war fakes'

FILE PHOTO: Maria Alyokhina (L) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, members of the punk protest band Pussy Riot, attend a forum at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 15, 2014. Tolokonnikova's husband Pytor Verzilov (R) served as translator. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - A Moscow court sentenced in absentia Pytor Verzilov, a Russian-Canadian activist and independent news site founder, to eight years and four months for social media posts criticising the war in Ukraine, Russian media reported on Tuesday.

Verzilov, 36, rose to prominence as the unofficial spokesperson of the feminist opposition group Pussy Riot after the jailing of its members following a stunt in Feb. 2012 in which they donned balaclavas and stormed into Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral, shouting out a song against Putin.