Ms Ovsyannikova will join a company which is owned by Die Welt newspaper just weeks after she stormed onto the set of a Kremlin-run media outlet in Russia carrying an anti-war placard. The 43-year-old was fined 30,000 rubles (£214) after being interrogated for 14 hours in relation to an anti-war video message she posted online.

Ovsyannikova joined Die Welt as a freelance correspondent.

The role will see her write for the German daily broadsheet and appear as a contributor on a TV news channel which it owns.

Welt Group’s editor-in-chief Ulf Porschardt said Ovsyannikova’s protest had “defended the most important journalistic ethics – despite the threat of state repression”.

He added: “I am excited to be working with her.”

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Ms Ovsyannikova also claimed Die Welt “stands for what is being defended so vehemently by the courageous people on the ground in Ukraine right now: for freedom.”

During her on-screen protest, Ms Ovsyannikova carried a placard while the Channel One TV host continued to read from the autocue.

The placard said: “No war. Stop the war.

“Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you here.”

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Moscow recently criminalised calling the war an “invasion”.

Russian state-controlled media outlets have instead been told to describe it as a “special military operation”, just as Vladimir Putin did on the eve of the invasion.