A Russian, separated from his 13-year-old daughter who was placed because of a drawing at school against the offensive in Ukraine, was sentenced on Tuesday March 28 to two years in prison and fled, have announced the authorities.
This affair has aroused great indignation for several weeks in Russia, becoming one of the symbols of the merciless repression against those who oppose the military operation launched more than a year ago by the Kremlin in Ukraine.
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But it took a new turn on Tuesday when the court in Efremov, 300 km south of Moscow, announced that the defendant Alexei Moskaliov, placed under house arrest since March, had vanished. “The verdict was read in the absence of the defendant, because he disappeared and did not appear at the hearing”told AFP the head of communication of the court, Elena Mikhaïlovskaïa.
“He ran away last night”
Shortly before, the court found Alexei Moskaliov, 54, guilty of having “discredited” the Russian armed forces, sentencing him to two years’ imprisonment, the sentence requested the day before by the prosecutor. Alexei Moskaliov had been under house arrest since March 1.
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According to an official from the court’s press office, “He ran away last night”, simply told journalists Olga Diatchouk, according to a video relayed by several Russian media. Asked by AFP, his lawyer, Vladimir Bilienko, said he last saw him on Monday.
The case began when Alexey Moskaliov’s daughter, Maria Moskaliova, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, drew a picture in class showing missiles heading towards a woman and child with a Ukrainian flag. In the context of an all-out hunt for voices critical of the offensive in Ukraine, the headmistress of the school immediately alerted the police.
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House arrest
Investigating the father, authorities say they found online posts critical of the operation in Ukraine, which resulted in him being charged with “discredited the army” Russian.
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Alexei Moskaliov was placed under house arrest on March 1 and his daughter placed in a home and deprived of all contact with her father. The future of the family will also be played out during another trial, which begins on April 6, and during which Alexeï Moskaliov risks being definitively deprived of his parental authority.
Her lawyer told AFP on Tuesday that Maria Moskaliova had been placed under guardianship and that she could be “sent to an orphanage within a month”.
Support from Wagner’s boss
As a sign of the indignation aroused by this case, an online petition has been launched, despite pressure from the authorities, to demand the return of the child to his father. Even the boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojine, whose men are fighting on the front line in Ukraine, gave his support to Maria and criticized the local authorities.
This case shows the scale taken by the repression orchestrated by the Kremlin in parallel with the conflict in Ukraine. Shortly after the start of its offensive which began in February 2022, Russia introduced a series of criminal sanctions to suppress any form of criticism of the military. Renowned opponents and ordinary citizens have been arrested, and some have already been tried and sentenced.
