Two years in prison for Rus whose daughter made this drawing

AFPAleksej Moskalyov was placed under house arrest and is now sentenced to two years in a penal camp

A Russian man has been sentenced to two years in prison for ‘discrediting the army’. His daughter made a drawing against the war in Ukraine last year, after which the Russian authorities launched an investigation against him.

The case has sparked outrage among human rights activists. Local politicians are also speaking out. “Parents fear for their children,” says Olga Podolskaja, who closely followed the father and daughter over the past year. “Parents ask me: what should I do when my child goes to school? Should I be afraid that he or she will draw or say something wrong?”

According to the Russian court, the father, 54-year-old Aleksej Moskalyov, has fled. Since the beginning of this month, the single man was already divorced from his daughter, Masha. She was placed in a youth institution and he was obliged to stay at home in his home town of Efremov.

I think they want to set an example with this.

Olga Podolskaya, local Russian politician

Last April, Masja was given an assignment at school to make a drawing for support to the military in Ukraine. The drawing below was the result. The Ukrainian flag reads “glory to Ukraine” and the Russian flag reads “no to war”.

Olga Podolskaya

Masha’s headmaster called the police, who took Moskalev for questioning when he defended her daughter’s drawing. Police then found pro-Ukraine messages and caricatures of Russian President Vladimir Putin on his social media. For those posts he was fined 32,000 rubles, just under 400 euros.

It seemed to stop there, but recently the authorities started a new case against Moskalev in which he was suspected of discrediting the army. It carries a prison sentence since the invasion of Ukraine.

According to Moskalyov lawyer, Vladimir Biliënko, the family is targeted by the authorities purely “for political reasons”.

Olga PodolskayaDe 13-year-old Masja

Moskalev had already fled before Tuesday’s verdict and has not heard the verdict. Podolskaja: “Two years in prison for expressing your opinion on social media, that is terrible. I think they wanted to set an example to discourage others. Like: this also happens to you if you have a different opinion.”

Lawyer Biliënko was able to visit Masja’s institution for the first time on Tuesday morning. He was not allowed to see her, but he was allowed to take two new drawings with him. “And a letter for her father with a big heart at the end and the text: Papa, you are my hero.”

Correspondent Geert Groot Koerkamp:

“In the past year, something like 20,000 people have been arrested in Russia during demonstrations and one-man actions. Thousands of them have been fined, and criminal cases have been started against hundreds of people.

180 of those cases are about discrediting the Russian army. These cases have led to hefty sentences, such as 8.5 years for the well-known opposition politician Ilya Yashin. He had talked in an online stream about Boetsja and the bombing of Mariupol. Last week, a Moscow student who had shared information on social media about Russia’s crackdown in Ukraine was also sentenced to 8.5 years in prison.

The high sentences mean that Russians are more careful. They are becoming more cautious and afraid to express themselves, for example to journalists or in opinion polls.”

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