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Russian TV protester confirms she has gone on the run

STORY: Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, famous for staging an on-air protest against Russia's war in Ukraine, confirmed she had escaped house arrest.

She faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of the charge of spreading fake news about Russia's armed forces.

In a short video she released on messaging app Telegram on Wednesday (October 5), she said she was being persecuted "for telling the truth".

"Esteemed colleagues of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service. Put an electronic tag like this on [Vladimir] Putin. It's he, not I, who should be kept away from society and tried over the genocide of the people of Ukraine and the mass killing of Russian men."

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Ovsyannikova grabbed world attention in March by walking out in front of studio cameras during an evening news broadcast with a placard that read "Stop the war" and "They're lying to you".

The 44-year-old journalist was given two months' house arrest in August over a protest in July.

She stood on a river embankment opposite the Kremlin and held up a poster calling President Vladimir Putin a murderer and his soldiers fascists.

Her lawyer said she was due to turn up to a hearing at 10 a.m. Moscow time at a district court, but investigators had failed to establish her whereabouts.

The state-run news outlet Russia Today reported on Saturday (October 1) that she had fled along with her 11-year-old daughter.

Her whereabouts were unknown.

How she left and where she went are still unclear.

On Monday, her name could be seen on the interior ministry's online list of fugitives from justice, accompanied by a photo.