But the whereabouts of the convicted man, Alexei Moskalyov, were unclear. The court said in an official posting on VKontakte, similar to Facebook, that he had fled from house arrest.
The case has provoked an outcry among Russian human rights activists and sparked an online campaign to reunite father and daughter. Moskalyov was convicted over comments he himself had posted online about the war in Ukraine. But the investigation started after Masha, then 12, drew a picture last April showing Russian missiles raining down on a Ukrainian mother and child, prompting the head of her school to call the police.
Police began examining Moskalyov's social media activity and he was initially fined 35,000 roubles for comments critical of the Russian army. In December, investigators opened another case against him on suspicion of discrediting the armed forces, this time based on a social media post in June.