Former Russian TV news journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, facing charges of sedition over her on-air protest of the murderous invasion of Ukraine in March, skipped out of house arrest ahead of a Wednesday court hearing and announced as much on Telegram, Axios reports.
“I consider myself completely innocent, and since our state refuses to comply with its own laws, starting from September 30, 2022, I refuse to comply with the measure of restraint established for me in the form of house arrest and release myself from it,” Ovsyannikova wrote, and in a video said “Put a tag like this on Putin,” showing an electronic monitoring bracelet on her ankle. “It is he who must be isolated from society not me, and he should be tried for the genocide of the people of Ukraine and for the fact that he destroys the male population of Russia en masse,” she said.
It’s not clear how easy it is for a high-profile fugitive like Ovsyannikova to escape Russia. Our guess is it’s pretty fucking hard given Putin’s deeply paranoid police state. Then again with a mass exodus of tens of thousands of military-age men avoiding conscription she might be able to slip out over the border and into a neighboring country unnoticed. We’re rooting for her either way.