Former Russian state television journalist Marina Ovsyannikova fled the country after escaping house arrest, her lawyer has said.
Ms Ovsyannikova interrupted a live broadcast in March to protest the war in Ukraine, holding up a sign that read in English: “No war. Russians against war”.
In Russian, it read: “NO WAR. Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here.”
The 44-year-old woman’s lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, said she and her daughter fled Russia hours after leaving where she was under house arrest and are now under the protection of an unnamed European state.
“They are in Europe now,” he added. “They are fine. They are waiting to be able to speak publicly, but at the moment it is not sure.”
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Mr Zakhatov declined to give further details of her whereabouts, saying it “could prove to be a problem for her”.
Ms Ovsyannikova had been under house arrest since August after she staged an isolated protest outside the Kremlin carrying a sign reading “Putin is a murderer. His soldiers are fascists”.
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She was charged with spreading information about the Russian armed forces that the Kremlin deemed “false” – a charge that carries a 10-year prison sentence.
At the time of her first manifestation, she was the editor of the nightly news program Vremya.
She has previously said that her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian and that she is “very ashamed” of the work she has done for state television, saying he has allowed the Russian people to become “zombified”. “.
In March she was fined 30,000 rubles (about £223.40 at the time) for breaking protest laws, then in July she was fined an additional 50,000 rubles (£677) for social media posts criticizing the invasion.
Then, in August, she had her home raided by authorities as they pursued new charges against her.
In September she was placed under house arrest which she has publicly stated she will not comply with and earlier this month she confirmed she had fled.
