According to her own words, an “ordinary” mother. She practiced choir singing in the church, where she also met her priest husband.
Says she supports traditional values and is the mother or guardian of more than 20 children.
The same woman also leads Russian child abductions in Ukraine.
He is the Children’s Ombudsman of Russia Marija Lvova-Belovawhich in practice carries out the forced relocation and Russification of Ukrainians directly Vladimir Putin under the presidential administration. He does part of his work in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
– Thirteen little balls were waiting for us on the porch, dressed in uniform and hoping to get to Moscow to their fathers and mothers, describes one trip to find children from the Donbas region in July.
Lvova-Belova became a key factor in ‘s recently published report, which deals with the abduction of Ukrainian children in occupied territories by the Russian war machine.
You can view the photo evidence collected by here.
In Russia, under the leadership of Lvova-Belova, the authorities place the children in Russian families, according to several estimates, permanently. Russia also brings school-aged children to camp centers where the program includes intense Russianization. Among other things, the UN and several non-governmental organizations have condemned Russia’s actions.
The exact number of children abducted by Russia is not known, but there are at least several thousand of them. The Ukrainian authorities are aware of more than 16,000 children who have been forcibly transferred to Russia with their families or alone.
An important propagandist
Marija Lvova-Belova started her job as Russia’s children’s commissioner in 2021. Lvova-Belova, who entered politics from the Penza region, has been described as a rising star of the ruling party United Russia, who brings out conservative values in the way the Russian leadership wants, according to the Spanish broadcasting company RTVE.
RTVE published on Tuesday extensive articles (you go to another service) About Russian child abductions in cooperation with the European Broadcasting Union EBU. The report has reached similar conclusions as .
In its story, RTVE tells how Lvova-Belova, 38, has described herself as an “ordinary” mother of a large family. The husband is a former IT specialist and currently an Orthodox priest Pavel Kogelmanwith whom Lvova-Belova has five children together.
It is said that the couple met in the church where Lvova-Belova sang in the choir. Kogelman used to watch choir practices until I got the courage to ask him out, Lvova-Belova herself has told in a TV show aimed at women called Sisältäpäin / Naiset.
In the program, Lvova-Belova characterizes how traditional values, marriage and children have always been important to her.
In addition to biological children, the family has four adopted children. In addition, he has said that he works as a guardian for 13 other children.
Lvova-Belova, one of Russia’s most visible female top officials, often presents her family on her public accounts. For example, in the Telegram social media service, Lvova-Belova often posts pictures of her family. He shows pictures of himself with his children going to church and in the gym.
He calls his trips to the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia in the war of aggression “business trips”. That’s what he did in early February when he visited the Russian-occupied Kherson region of Ukraine. According to Ukraine, Russia took a thousand children from orphanages in the region when it withdrew last fall.
– The most precious feeling, meeting my loved ones after a business trip, writes Lvova-Belova in her Telegram message. In the photo, Lvova-Belova hugs her children.
What is known about the Ukrainian boy?
The report published by on Sunday showed how Russian soldiers take Ukrainian children directly even from their parents’ hands.
One of Lvova-Belova’s adopted children has been featured recently in the summer (you switch to another service). The child is a teenage boy from Mariupol, whose encounter Lvova-Belova has vividly described in an interview with the Russian conservative television channel Tsargdrad.
– That’s it, he’s my child, says Lvova-Belova that she thought when she saw the boy. In the interview, Lvova-Belovan also tells how her husband had given permission to adopt a son, if his wife so desired.
Forced transfers from occupied territories are always war crimes under international law. If the purpose of the forced migration of children is to destroy a group of people, it is genocide.
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor has begun investigating Russian child abductions as possible genocide.
According to the Russian media, the Ukrainian boy adopted by Lvova-Belova has previously lived homeless before arriving in Russia. The Russian authorities changed the boy’s citizenship at the end of the summer, and in her Telegram update from that time, Lvova-Belova says that the boy is now getting a better life.
Recently, Lvova-Belova has not kept the Ukrainian boy in public. Only Lvova-Belova and her husband’s children have appeared in family photos this year. According to RTVE, Lvova-Belova has said that the boy has had difficulties in history exams, because he “was taught history incorrectly in Ukraine”.
On the banned list of several countries
The United States, Britain, EU, Switzerland and Australia have put Lvova-Belova on the sanctions list.
According to the U.S., Lvova-Belova’s efforts include forced transfers of Ukrainian children and forced adoptions into Russian families and their Russianization.
In her Telegram update, Lvova-Belova has, among other things, denied that she acted improperly. He calls the Ukrainian and Western media fake journalists.
The president has also defended Lvova-Belova. According to Putin (you will switch to another service) Lvova-Belova should be thanked and bowed down for the work she has done.
Other power users are also involved in Russia’s child abduction system.
According to RTVE, the mayor of Moscow handles child abductions with Lvova-Belova Andrei Vorobyovleader of Russian-occupied Luhansk Leonid Pasechnik and the leader of Russian-occupied Donetsk Denis Pushil. All three men can be found on the banned lists of different countries.