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"I
consider myself completely innocent, and since our state refuses
to comply with its own laws, I refuse to comply with the measure
of restraint imposed on me as of 30 September 2022 and release
myself from it," she said.
In a video posted on Telegram, she sat on a pink sofa and
addressed Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service, criticising
President Vladimir Putin over the war.
"Put a tag like this on Putin," she said, gesturing to what
appeared to be an electronic ankle bracelet.
Her lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, said she was supposed to turn up
to a court hearing at 10:00 Moscow time (0700 GMT), but it was
held in absentia as investigators had failed to establish her
whereabouts.
He told Reuters the authorities do not know where she is and
that she will be remanded in custody if caught.
"We hope, however, that this will not happen," he said.
Ovsyannikova grabbed world attention in March by walking out in
front of studio cameras during an evening news broadcast on
state television with a placard that read "Stop the war" and
"They're lying to you".
The Kremlin at the time denounced her act of protest as
"hooliganism".
The 44-year-old was given two months' house arrest in August
over a protest in July when she stood on a river embankment
opposite the Kremlin and held up a poster calling Putin a
murderer and his soldiers fascists.
She faced a sentence of up to 10 years in prison if found guilty
of the charge of spreading fake news about Russia's armed
forces.
Her house arrest was due to last until Oct. 9, but the state-run
news outlet Russia Today reported on Saturday that she had fled
along with her 11-year-old daughter, and that her whereabouts
were unknown. How she left and where she went are still unclear.
Russia passed new laws against discrediting or distributing
"deliberately false information" about the armed forces on March
4, eight days after invading Ukraine.
(Reporting by Caleb Davis; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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