The Russian teenager, who was separated from his father because of a drawing in Ukraine, was entrusted to his mother
New episode in an emblematic story of oppression in Russia: the teenager, separated from her father for making a drawing in support of Ukraine, was finally entrusted to her mother, who had not seen her for years.
Denounced by her school after she fired missiles at a Ukrainian family, 13-year-old Maria Moskaliova, nicknamed Masha, was taken from her father, who raised her alone, and placed in a home in March. The father, Alexei Moskaliov, has since been sentenced to two years in prison for disparaging the Russian army. He was arrested last week in Belarus, where he had fled, but his entourage and the judicial system do not know where he is now.
A court in Efremov, 300 km south of Moscow, set to consider a request for restrictions on Mr Moskaliov’s parental rights on Thursday dismissed the trial because it had not located him to convene.
On Wednesday evening, on the eve of the planned start of this process, the authorities announced that the mother, Olga Sitchikhina, who had not seen Masha for several years, suddenly appeared and picked up the child. “Olga took Masha out of the social rehabilitation center at her request,” Russian children’s officer Maria Lvova-Belova said on Telegram on Wednesday evening.
“Let’s hope all goes well for the mother and daughter,” added this Russian official, who in another case was the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court accusing him of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.
“They hadn’t lived together for a long time and communicated very little. At first, Masha did not want to see her mother,” said Mrs. Lvova-Belova. “But she’s changed her mind, she told me that herself on the phone.”
The case of Masha and her father aroused great emotion in Russia and has become emblematic of the repression of those who denounce the Kremlin’s military offensive against Ukraine. An online petition launched in Russia calling for the child’s return to his father has garnered more than 145,000 signatures despite the climate of fear.
Also read: In Russia, a broken family and increasingly violent anti-war verdicts
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