Glamorous magazine editor - and former childhood friend of Putin - flees Russia on the advice of Moscow’s secret service because of her support for murdered Boris Nemtsov

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Ksenia Sobchak (above) has fled Russia after receiving death threats in the wake of the murder of Boris Nemtsov

A glamorous TV presenter has fled Russia after receiving death threats in the wake of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, it was revealed today.

Ksenia Sobchak, who is also a prominent Moscow opposition figure and glossy magazine editor, was urged to leave for her own safety by the FSB secret service.

Although the 33-year-old had recently hired bodyguards she was still not believed to be safe - despite the fact she had known Vladimir Putin since childhood.

'I am going to leave Russia for a while,' she announced at a Moscow party on Friday. 

'Close friends explained off the record that she is leaving not because of her extra sensitivity but because the secret service recommended her to do so,' Kommersant newspaper claimed.

Ms Sobchak today said reports saying she was emigrating from Russia were an 'overstatement' but did not deny she was leaving temporarily on secret service advice. 

It had been reported in Russia that her name was on a 'hit list' of Putin foes.

The revelation of her sudden flight abroad came as the Russian president was scheduled to reappear after being out of sight for unexplained reasons since March 5.

Despite her family links to Putin, the outspoken Ms Sobchak became a strong critic of the president's authoritarian approach.

The prominent blogger started to receive death threats from online trolls soon after opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, 55, was shot in the back near the Kremlin on February 27.

At Nemtsov's funeral on March 3, a man approached her and said, 'bear in mind, you are the next one, Ksenia.'

Ms Sobchak is the daughter of Putin's political mentor and law professor, the late Anatoly Sobchak, who gave him his first political job after he quit the KGB.

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Ms Sobchak is pictured at her flat, which she has been told to leave by Moscow's secret service despite hiring body guards

The television presenter and opposition figure (right) has known Vladimir Putin (centre holding flowers) since a child as her father Anatoly Sobchak was his political mentor and law professor. They are pictured together at Mr Sobchak's funeral in 2000

Despite knowing the president (left) since childhood, the 33-year-old (right) has not been reluctant to voice opposition to his policies

For years there were rumours that she was Putin's goddaughter - and while this is not the case, many of his supporters have not forgiven her for openly articulating opposition to his policies.

Among Tweeted threats she has received one read: 'Give up Ksenia, your death will be fast.'

Another, using an insulting nickname for the TV host, wrote after Nemtsov's death: 'I am also very happy that there is one b****** less; when is it your turn, Horse?'

One user called Vadim posted a picture of a man pointing a gun with a list of six prominent opposition surnames - Nemtsov, Navalny, Sobchak, Kudrin, Kasyanov, Khodorkovsky - and wrote: 'Just politics, nothing personal'.

In the wake of Nemtsov's death, Ms Sobchak warned that Putin has unleashed forces in Russia over which he now has no control.

Mr Sobchak (left), who was at the time the Mayor of St Petersburg, is pictured with deputy Putin (right). Putin has not been seen since March 5

'Actually it would be in some way less worrying if Putin had ordered Nemtsov's killing,' she wrote.

'It would be an awful system, but at least a system, a manageable system.

'But I feel, unfortunately, this is not the case.

'There is no Putin who gave a command to kill. But there is a Putin who has built a hellish Terminator and he has lost control of it.'

She also warned: 'There is no one controlling the process any more - there is chaotic hatred.

'Hatred that is fuelled every day by the federal mass media.'

After opposition figure Mr Nemtsov, 55, was shot another user wrote to Ms Sobchak and said: 'I am also very happy that there is one b****** less; when is it your turn, Horse'

Of the shots that killed Nemtsov, she said in her blog: 'These are only the first six bullets. There are troubled times ahead.'

In December, she riled Putin by challenging him in a televised press conference, criticising him for labelling opponents as 'fifth columnists' and implying they were 'national traitors'.

Putin snapped at his press chief: 'Why did you give her the floor?'

Earlier the former IT girl told how wealthy Russians are seeking an escape route as the economy collapses due to Western sanctions over Putin's military intervention in Ukraine.

Ms Sobchak with parents Anatoly and Lyudmila in St Petersburg when she was young. She has denied claims she is emigrating 

She said: 'This is the main society talk in good restaurants in Moscow. It is either getting citizenship, or residence permits, or the like.'

Worldwide intrigue and rumours have been circulating over Putin's whereabouts and health in recent weeks.

Some suggested he was suffering from chronic back ailments and required treatment from an Austrian orthopaedic - but the Kremlin has not confirmed the reason for his absence.

Rumours about his mystery disappearance also included his death, a coup, a severe bout of flu or his 'lover' giving birth to a child in Switzerland.

Some Moscow sources believe that Putin has been holed up at a high security presidential retreat in the Novgorod region.