The children come forward, heads down. They follow the direction indicated by an adult, chapka screwed on the head. One of them holds a puppy in his arms. In the background, we can see the gray and red wagon, characteristic of Russian trains. The photo, posted on Instagram on February 21, 2022, is accompanied by a benevolent message: “Dear colleagues, strength to you. Take care of yourselves and your children”.
We are a week after the outbreak of the invasion in Ukraine. Maria Lvova-Belova posts a series of photos supposed to testify to the “rescue” of Ukrainian children. “Their heart hurts them”, underlines the one appointed Commissioner for Children’s Rights, by Vladimir Putin, in 2021. Her “work”? Organize the transfer of thousands of children from Donbass, a territory currently occupied by Russia, with a strong pro-Russian separatist presence. Of “deportation”, and a “war crime”, according to the International Penal Court.
Of Maria Lvova-Belova, 38, history will surely remember that she was cited alongside Vladimir Putin, as “presumed responsible for a war crime”, by the institution, which issued an arrest warrant against the Russian leader and his subordinate, March 17, 2023. Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, international organizations, including the NGO Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have accused the Russian authorities of orchestrating the “forced displacement” thousands of Ukrainian miners. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has himself denounced “kidnappings”, “forced adoptions” and “re-education” of Ukrainians.
Inserted at “United Russia”, mother of 10
A report published in February by theYale University and the Conflict Observatory program of the US State Department indicates that at least 6,000 Ukrainian children are detained in a total of 43 re-education camps in Russia. The National Information Office of the Ukrainian government said that at the beginning of March, this number could be more than 16,000. On the program: military training, readings with Russian veterans and visits to Russian cultural sites…
“In Mariupol, we documented several cases of civilians being taken out military hand by Russian soldiers from shelters and taken to camps where children are sometimes separated from their families before being sent to Russia, Laura Mills, researcher at Amnesty International, recently explained in our columns. Of this system denounced by the West, Maria Lvova-Belova, inserted in “United Russia”, and representative of the presidential campaign of Vladimir Putin, in 2018, would be the foreman, according to the ICC.
This mother of 10 years, five of whom are biological, was first a conductor and a musician, before getting involved in several charitable funds for the disabled in Russia. She was elected to the Civic Chamber of the Penza region in 2014, a body responsible for issuing opinions on Russian legislative activities. She becomes a senator of the Russian Federation, in 2020, after being elected “Leader of Russia”, as part of a national management competition, highly watched in Russia. Conservative, religious – she is married to an Orthodox priest – the Commissioner for Children’s Rights very quickly served as an example to follow in Russia.
Maria Lvova-Belova herself adopted a child from Ukraine. “Now I know what it is to be a mother of a child from Donbass. It is difficult, but we love each other”, she says, on February 16, 2023, on television, accompanied by Vladimir Cheese fries. In her numerous media tours, she says she “saved” “her child” from Mariupol, a port city that was almost razed to the ground by Russian missiles, and Russia’s strategy of random shelling, to destroy the morale of the families who still lived there. , and scare them away when they don’t die.
She herself adopted a Ukrainian
Under what conditions did Maria Lvova-Belova, targeted by American sanctions since September 2022, adopt her child? Were they similar to those captured by a surveillance camera in an orphanage in the Kherson region last October? In this video, released by Sky News, we see Russians armed and hooded for some, wandering in the establishment, in search of children. Volodymyr Sahaidak, the director of the establishment, had hidden them, a little earlier, warned that the FSB wanted to “take them”.
What is the degree of involvement of Maria Lvova-Belova in Putin’s politics? Is she only an “extra”, responsible for playing the face of this policy of transferring children, without any real prerogatives? “This fragile woman alone does more for children and peace than these shameful Americans who scribble sanctions lists,” Vladimir Putin said in September. “Being part of the President’s team represents a special responsibility and a desire to meet the most difficult challenges of our time. I am proud to be at the service of our country and our children,” she said. one year old, on Instagram. In this photo, no child. Just her and Putin, shaking hands and their complicity staged.
