Masha, the Russian girl is separated from her father and interned in a juvenile detention center for making a drawing against the war

In the center of the Russian city of Yefremov, 320 km south of Moscow, there is a wall full of war images.

They are large portraits of Russian soldiers with masked faces, guns and the letters Z and V in general, which are symbols of the country’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

A poem is also read:

Kindness must have fists.

Kindness requires an iron hand

To tear the skin off

They threaten her.

In Russia, this is the official and patriotic image of the invasion of Ukraine.

But in Yefremov we find a different picture of the Ukrainian war. A very different one.

Masha’s drawing

Councilor Olga Podolskaya shows me a photo on her mobile phone. Is of a drawing of a girl.

On the left is a Ukrainian flag with the words “Glory to Ukraine!”; on the right the Russian tricolor and the inscription “No to war!”. Missiles fly from Russia, but a mother and daughter defiantly stand in their way.

The drawing is from April 2022 and was made by Masha Moskaleva, who was then 12 years old.

Alexei, the girl’s single father, then spoke to the counselor and she told him that after seeing Masha’s drawing, she the school had called the police.

“The police started investigating Alexei’s social networks,” Olga tells me. “And they told him that he brought up his daughter badly.”

Authorities filed charges.

For an anti-war post on his social media, Alexei was fined 32,000 rubles (about $415 at the time) on charges of discredit the armed forces Russian.

And a few weeks ago a criminal case was opened against him because of the anti-war publications, with the same charge of discrediting the military.

This time, Alexei faces off a possible prison sentence.

Divorced from her father

Masha’s father is under house arrest in Yefremov and his daughter has been sent to a juvenile detention center. without them both being able to communicateNot even by phone.

“No one has seen Masha since March 1,” Olga Podolskaya explains to me, “despite our efforts to enter the juvenile detention center and find out how she is.”

“The Russian authorities want everyone to follow the rules. No one is allowed to have an opinion. If you disagree with what people think, ignore their posts on social networks, but don’t put that person under house arrest and don’t put their daughter in juvenile detention,” he protests.

We are in front of an apartment building in Yefremov. A window opens and a man leans out. It’s Alexei.

We are not allowed to communicate with him. According to the rules of his house arrest, he is only allowed to have contact with his lawyer, the detective and the prison service.

His lawyer, Vladimir Biliyenko, has just arrived. He has come to deliver food and drink to Alexei that local activists have bought for him.

‘He is very worried about his daughter’s absence’, Vladimir tells me, after visiting Alexei Moskalev. “Everything in the apartment reminds her of her. He’s worried about what could happen to him.”

I ask the lawyer why he thinks the authorities took Masha.

“If they really wanted to question the father, they should have asked him for a statement. They should also have invited Masha to talk to her,” Vladimir argues.

“Nothing has been done about this. They just decided to send her (to the youth center). I think if it were not for the nature of the administrative and criminal charges that Alexei received, this would not happen. The social service seems obsessed with this family. I think it’s for purely political reasons. The family problems started after the girl drew the picture.”

Fear of having a different opinion

On the street I talk to some of Alexei’s neighbors to ask what they think of the situation.

“She’s a good girl and I never had any problems with her father,” says retired Angelina Ivanovna. “But I’m afraid to say anything. I’m afraid”.

“Maybe we can collect signatures to support (from Alexei),” a younger woman suggests. But when I ask her opinion on what’s going on, she says, “Sorry, I can’t tell you.”

I ask him if he is afraid of the possible consequences.

“Yes of course”.

indoctrination at school

Only a few steps separate Alexei Moskalev’s apartment building from school number 9, where Masha studied and whose authorities called the police because of Masha’s anti-war drawing.

The school has not yet responded to our written request for comment. When we tried to visit her they told us we couldn’t go in and they didn’t answer our calls.

But I visited the number 9 school website and the images remind me of the patriotic wall in the center of the city.

The homepage features the “Heroes of the Special Military Operation” – 24 portraits of Russian soldiers who fought in Ukraine.

There are also slogans like “everything for the win. Let’s support our youth on the front lines!”

Last October, soldiers who had returned from Ukraine visited school number 9.

In a speech, the director of the day shift, Larisa Trofimova, stated: “We believe in ourselves and in our homeland, that can never be wrong”.

On the other side of town, supporters of the Moskalev family and journalists gather at the local courthouse.

“Give back Masha!”

The Yefremov Youth Affairs Commission is taking legal action to officially restrict parental rights from Alexei.

This is an initial hearing known as a “conversation” with the judge.

His lawyer, Vladimir Biliyenko, explains that Alexei wanted to be here in person, but was not allowed to break house arrest to appear in court, despite his daughter’s custody being at stake.

An activist hangs a poster in the hallway of the courthouse.

“Give Masha back to her father!” she prays.

A police officer tells him to remove it.

The Committee on Youth Affairs has not yet responded to our request for comment on the case of Alexei Moskalev and his daughter Masha.

Natalya Filatova, a supporter of Alexei, believes that the history of the Moskalev family shows the suppression of dissent in Russia.

“Our constitution recognizes freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, total freedom of citizens to express their opinion,” Natalya tells me.

“But now they forbid us to do that“, sentence.