Russia
Alexei Moskalyov convicted of discrediting the armed forces on social media after police examined daughter’s drawings
Tuesday 28 Mar 2023 3:56pm BST
A Russian man arrested by police after his daughter drew anti-war pictures at school was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after being convicted of discrediting the armed forces.
But in a dramatic turn of events, a court spokesman said the man, Alexei Moskalyov, escaped from house arrest overnight and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
Moskalyov, a single parent from the town of Yefremov, 150 miles south of Moscow, has been separated from his 13-year-old daughter since he was placed under house arrest earlier this month and she was transferred to a state-run shelter.
The family said they had faced police pressure since April last year when his daughter, a sixth grader, refused to attend a patriotic class at her school and made several drawings showing rockets being fired at a family standing under a Ukrainian flag, and another said “Honour to Ukraine!”
School officials at the time called the police, who questioned the girl and threatened her father.
Police then began investigating Moskalyov’s social media activities and the father was eventually accused of discrediting the armed forces for his posts in which he called the Russian regime “terrorists” and the Russian army a “rapist”. .
The high-profile case drew criticism from Russian human rights groups and prompted an online campaign for the father and daughter to be reunited.
Police in the Tula region south of Moscow said Moskalyov escaped from house arrest in the early hours of Tuesday and had “begun a search for the suspect.”
Earlier in the day, a family lawyer visited his daughter at the children’s home and brought drawings she had made for him that read, “Dad, you are my hero,” according to a video released by the independent news agency Sota.Vision.
According to the MSK1 news agency, the children’s home held an “emergency meeting” after the news that Moskalyov had escaped.
Moskalyov’s lawyer, Vladimir Bilienko, previously told the Guardian that the girl would be placed in an orphanage if no close relative was found willing to take care of her.
Since the war began, a number of politicians, activists and other Russians have fled the country after being placed under house arrest and brought to justice.
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