in her schools Russia “Special Military Operation” Ukraine it has its own meaning. Primary school children receive patriotic education and combat encouragement. In the rest of society with the theological eschatology that Putin’s intellectual court embellished with the invasion of Ukrainesoldiers do a job blessed with a theological afterlife, with – literally – the blessing of the Russian Church and mentors – such as Alexander Dugin – Russian President.

This is April 2022. The war goes on for the first two months, during which Moscow goes to any length to justify the invasion. The planet is in turmoil, West and East dug in. At that time, 12-year-old Maria Moskaleva, at a painting lesson at her school in the city of Efremov, Tula province, 300 km south of Moscow, does not draw the greatness of the “special operation”, but mourning for the mother and daughter of Russian explosions in Ukraine. Below he notes: “No to war”, “Glory to Ukraine”. Her teacher is surprised and immediately reports this to the principal, who in turn reports the incident to the authorities. Suddenly, special services appear at the school.

A few days later — and after authorities searched her father’s house and social media — Aleksey Moskalev was fined 32,000 rubles (about €350) for posting on Odnoklassniki, a Russian social network, according to an indictment in which he “slandered” the Russian army. The posts reportedly included support for Ukraine and cartoons of Putin.

At the same time, as Svetlana Davydova, head of the Child Protection Committee of the Efremov Municipal Formation, told Meduza, since May 2022, the Moskalev family has been placed on “preventive records in the register of families in a socially dangerous situation.”

The FSB, of course, does not leave the girl alone, as he repeatedly goes to his school and asks questions. He does the same with his father. They then decide that Maria will be homeschooled from now on. However, the city committee for the protection of children believes that the father simply does not make sure that the little girl goes to school.

In the meantime, a period of relative calm passed for the family. Maria’s parents have been divorced for a long time, her mother has lived in the Tambov region for the last 10 years, about 350 km away, with her 17-year-old daughter from another marriage. They did not have any special contacts, although, according to Russian media, the baby decided that she would like to live with her mother.

But he goes December 2022 and again finds Alexei Moskalev before the authorities for “repeatedly slandering the army”, again through Odnoklassniki. FSB officers arrive at his home and summon him for interrogation. On the same day, Maria is taken to an orphanage, waiting for the release of her father, which happened the next day. The first thing he did was go pick her up from the facility where she was taken.

New Year, however, this did not bode well for Alexei. In January, Efremov’s city child protection service filed a lawsuit to deprive Maria of his parental rights – her mother Olga Shichikina also appears in the same lawsuit.

The charges, according to Meduza, included: “Untidy appearance, lack of school uniform” at school; the child has “unsatisfactory performance in some school subjects, the father does not care about the progress of his daughter, does not attend parent meetings, does not maintain contact with the teaching staff” The father “has a negative effect on the patriotic upbringing of his daughter, does not properly fulfill the duties of upbringing, upbringing and maintenance minor daughter”; “it was also established that the family does not have a permanent income, but Moskalev did not apply to the social protection department for measures of social support”; “the girl’s mother lives separately, has another family, does not care about the fate of her daughter.”

Early March 2023 Alexei is sentenced to house arrest, and Maria is sent to an educational institution. According to the NGO, “they prevented him from seeing Maria. Almost no one was allowed to see her. It became known that only a distant relative was able to once meet her in early March.

At the end of the same month, Aleksei Moskalev was re-sentenced to two years in prison for a well-known crime: “repeated slander against the military” of Russia. The verdict was announced in his absence, as he escaped from house arrest the day before the trial. Even the lawyer assigned to him by the NGO could not find him, and he himself stated that he was surprised by his absence.

In fact, Maria wrote him a letter from the foundation, where she called him a “hero” and asked him not to give up.

Her wish didn’t come true. According to Belarusian reports of the following days, Aleksey Moskalev was detained in Minsk, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus. His lawyers, even then, could not report his whereabouts. Only journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, according to Russian reports, said she knew who helped him find asylum.

All this time and until April 5, Maria Moskaleva was in the orphanage. As he announced Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia Maria Lvova-Belova;who is also prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for kidnapping children from Ukraine, Maria’s relationship with her mother was “difficult” and it was not easy to bring them together so that the baby could live with at least one of the two parents. Olga Shichkina, however, explained the remoteness of her daughter by the “forbidding” of her ex-husband to see Maria.

Maria Lvova-Belova described in her Telegram account a meeting with the mother of little Maria, stating that little girl has changed her mind about her mother and wants to live with her.

Meanwhile, humanitarian and human rights organizations in Russia said that many families could adopt Maria. However, Shichkina’s promise to “liberate Maria from politics, anti-propaganda and painting” seems to have played a decisive role, giving her the right to take her daughter from the orphanage. Mother and daughter, however, were found, according to Telegram channels.

However, apparently, this will be the case until April 20, when the Efremov court will again consider the suit of the city guardianship to deprive Alexei and Olga of parental rights to Maria.

According to Medusa, restriction of parental rights is a precautionary measure. The court may restrict the rights of a parent or guardian if it is not safe for the child to live with them for reasons such as mental illness, chronic illness, etc. Also, Article 73 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation allows for the restriction of the rights of a parent to his child if it is dangerous for him to remain in the family through the fault of an adult, but there are no sufficient grounds for complete deprivation. parental rights.

This was stated by the head of the public organization “OVD-Info” Eva Levenberg. convinced that the painting was a pretext. “If someone came to the attention of law enforcement agencies for posts that are called “political”, then he is subject to increased control. We believe that in connection with the picture of Masha there was also an active interest due to the fact that the story received such wide publicity, ”she noted, adding:“ The claim for restriction of parental rights will be 100% satisfied, which means either a guardian will be chosen for Mary or she will be kept in an institution if the authorities consider that none of the guardians meet their requirements.”

However, as he wrote, Guardian, the case showed the extent of the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent. which relentlessly persecutes anyone who dares to criticize the war. OUR Memorialone of the oldest and most famous human rights organizations in Russia, winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. declared Moskalev a political prisoner.