Fears are growing for a Russian girl who was taken away from her father after she drew an anti-war picture at school, with the single dad now missing after fleeing house arrest under Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Alexei Moskalyov, 54, escaped on Tuesday after he was handed a two-year sentence for ‘discrediting’ the Russian army after his online activity was investigated by police in the small town of Yefremov, south of Moscow.
His 13-year-old daughter Maria was taken away from him earlier this month and placed in a local children’s home, with the pair denied contact and their lawyers now raising concerns over her uncertain future.
Moskalyov came to the attention of the authorities last April after Maria, then 12, drew a picture at school showing Russian missiles raining down on a Ukrainian mother and child.
Following international condemnation, the Kremlin has today stood by what many have seen as its harsh sentencing of Moskalyov and slammed what it called his ‘deplorable parenting’.
Fears are growing for 13-year-old Maria Moskalyova, a Russian girl who was taken away from her father after she drew an anti-war picture at school
Single dad Alexei Moskalyov, 54, escaped on Tuesday after he was handed a two-year sentence for ‘discrediting’ the Russian army
But, in a bizarre twist, the sentencing of Moskalyov was slammed by the boss of the feared Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has historically been close to Putin.
In a surprise intervention, founder of the Wagner private army that is fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Prigozhin called the verdict ‘unfair, especially in view of the fact that his daughter Masha will be forced to grow up in an orphanage’.
Prigozhin even asked the prosecutor to review the verdict, and also requested that lawyers associated with Wagner be allowed to work with Moskalyov’s defence.
Moskalyov’s lawyer Vladimir Biliyenko said he was in favour of both requests, even if he was unsure of Prigozhin’s motives. ‘I’m ready to accept any help that will help my client,’ he said.
Later on Wednesday, in a short audio message laced with expletives, Prigozhin angrily rejected the idea he was motivated by ‘political ambitions’.
The case has garnered international attention, as Moscow cracks down on any dissent while Putin’s forces wage a brutal war in Ukraine.
Moskalyov’s lawyer Vladimir Biliyenko said he did not know where his client was and that he was denied access to Maria, but was passed drawings from her.
He also confirmed the authenticity of a letter published on social media written by Maria to her father.
In a bizarre twist, the verdict on Moskalyov was slammed by the boss of the feared Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin
‘I love you very much and know that you are not guilty of anything,’ the letter read.
‘Everything will be ok and we will be together. You are my hero,’ it said.
She called him ‘the bravest person in the world.’
Biliyenko said it was now ‘difficult to predict’ what will happen to Maria, with a court due to decide on April 6 on restricting the 54-year-old father’s parental rights.
‘We will do everything possible to defend (Moskalyov) from these charges,’ the lawyer said.
He criticised Russia’s children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova and rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova for not getting involved in the case.
‘The fate of a child is being decided here and they are not interested,’ he said.
A local rights activist, Yelena Agafonova, has said she was prepared to take the girl in.
Moskalyov looks out through the window of his flat after he was placed under house arrest (dated March 23)
‘We will apply for custody of Masha (a diminutive of Maria), we are preparing the documents,’ she said to reporters.
She believed the case was a ‘show case to demonstrate what will happen with those who do not agree’ with Moscow’s Ukraine campaign.
Russia’s top human rights organisation Memorial, which has been closed down by Russian authorities, said it considered Moskalyov a ‘political prisoner’.
Maria, or Masha as she is known, drew a pro-peace picture back in April last year.
The head of her school called the police, who began to investigate her father and fined him for comments critical of the Russian army.
He was then investigated for a second time last December on suspicion of discrediting the armed forces, a crime under laws passed shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
Vladimir Bilyenko, the lawyer of Alexei Moskalyov. Biliyenko said it was now ‘difficult to predict’ what will happen to Maria
Moskalyov’s current whereabouts are unknown. A human rights lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, said on Wednesday that Moskalyov had been in touch with him and sent him a copy of a letter that Masha had written him from the children’s home where she has been living since early March.
‘Hi Dad, I really ask you not to get sick and not to worry. Everything is fine with me, I love you very much and know that you’re not guilty of anything. I am always on your side, and everything you do is right,’ she wrote.
Written neatly on lined paper, the letter ended with ‘I love you’ in English, and the words ‘you are a hero’ inside a crudely drawn heart.
The prosecutor’s office in Tula, south of Moscow, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Prigozhin’s request and on the investigation into Moskalyov’s escape.
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