An opposition politician and journalist in central Russia has escaped unharmed after an unknown attacker set a live grenade to explode outside his home.

Agzam Sharafiev, editor of local newspaper Yegorshiskie Vesti and a member of the Sverdlovsk regional parliament, found the grenade placed inside a glass container close to his apartment in the town of Artemovsky.

Police believe that if the glass had been dropped and shattered, the grenade would have exploded on impact.