The court in Tula, near Moscow, sentenced a family man who insulted the Russian army on social media. A drawing made by the man’s child is intertwined with the case in a special way.
An anti-war picture drawn by a sixth grade girl became expensive for a Russian family.
On Tuesday, the Tula District Court found the single father Alexey Moskalev Russian opposition media say Mediazona (you switch to another service).
The man was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison, reports for example BBC (switch to another service).
In addition, the court will decide next week whether Moskalev’s daughter will be taken Masha with.
In April 2022, Maša Moskaleva drew a picture in art class, in which she wrote “No war” and “Glory to Ukraine”.
The picture shows a woman protecting a child from missiles. A woman is holding a flag of Ukraine.
The art teacher reported the drawing to the principal
Aleksei Moskalev was called to school the next morning.
The principal reprimanded the single father for teaching his daughter bad habits and called the police at the school.
Maša and her father were taken to the police station. It turned out that the police was investigating Aleksei Moskalev’s social media comment in which he equated the Russian army with his abuser.
Moskalev was ordered to pay fines of 32,000 rubles, or almost 400 euros, from the legal document (you switch to another service)will survive.
Moskalev thought the matter would have been dealt with, but in December 2022, the police searched the family’s home. During the house search, the family’s savings were taken and property was destroyed.
The Russian security service FSB interrogated the father and the minor Masha on December 30.
Moskalev told the human rights watchdog for the organization (you switch to another service)that he was beaten by FSB officers during interrogation.
At the beginning of March, the court placed Moskalev under house arrest. The reason was his new, anti-war comments on social media and a previous fine for denigrating the army.
Sixth grader Maša was temporarily taken into custody.
Responsibility for minors’ anti-war stances rests with parents
The tangle that started with a sixth-grade girl’s anti-war drawing is not the first to end up in a police investigation.
OVD info (you switch to another service) according to 2022, the police investigated eight cases in which minors were suspected of belittling the Russian military.
In March 2022, a 12-year-old boy shouted during the break (you switch to another service) “Glory to Ukraine”. The police came to the family’s door and the mother was called in for questioning.
In October, the mother of the family convicted (you move to another service)for neglect of parental responsibilities because her fifth-grade daughter had skipped mandatory patriotic lessons. The school’s principal made a child protection report about the family.
In addition, the girl had set the Saint Javelin meme as her social media profile picture, which has become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance. Because of the picture, the police questioned the mother of the family.
In Yekaterinburg, on the other hand, you had to write a letter of thanks to a Russian soldier on the front. The teacher assured that the letters would go directly to the soldiers and that the school staff would not read them before sending them.
Elementary school age the boy wrote in his letter (you move to another service) honestly that he is against the war.
Later, the teacher called the boy in for an interview and asked him to explain why he had written his anti-war opinion in the letter, when no one had asked.
The matter spread in the Whatsapp group of school children’s parents. Some of the parents aggressively attacked the boy’s mother.
Read in this story why such a small number of Russians oppose the war.
In this article, you can test yourself whether you would survive in Russia without a conviction.
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