Sixth-grader Maria Moskaleva from the city of Efremov, Tula region, drew a picture in support of Ukraine at an art lesson. The teacher reported this to the school administration, the girl was taken to the police and the FSB several times, and a criminal case was opened against her father under article 280.3 on “discrediting the RF Armed Forces” because of comments on social networks. OVD-Info and Spektr write about this.
Masha made the drawing back in April 2022. The teacher gave the task to draw pictures in support of Russian troops in Ukraine. The girl drew a woman with a child, on which rockets fly from Russia, and Russian and Ukrainian flags from both sides. In Russian, she wrote “No to war,” and in Ukrainian, “Glory to Ukraine.” The director called the police, but the girl managed to run away home, because at the exit from the school she gave the police a different name.
The next day, when the girl came to school, the director again called the police and the guardianship service. Masha and her father, Aleksey Moskalev, who came to pick up their daughter, were taken to the department. The father was interrogated. On his pages in Odnoklassniki and VKontakte, they found comments in support of Ukraine and pictures with caricatures of Vladimir Putin. A protocol was drawn up against Moskalev under the article on “public actions aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” (part 1 of article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). On the same day, Alexei was tried and fined 32 thousand rubles for a comment in Odnoklassniki that said: “The Russian army. The perpetrators are with us."
Alexey assured his daughter that there was nothing more to worry about, and the next day she went back to school. Soon Alexei received a phone call and was informed that the FSB had taken his daughter away. “I got dressed and flew there. I was greeted by the FSB. I asked: “Where is my daughter?” They answered that she was in the next office, they were talking to her. For three and a half hours they told me that I was raising a child incorrectly: they said that they would take her away from me, and they would put me in jail. They suggested that Masha lead some kind of youth team in support of the Russian troops, but I kindly refused – she has a lot of classes and circles, she doesn’t have time, ”said Moskalev.
Since then, Masha no longer went to school. A week before the New Year, according to Moskalev, he received a call from a man who introduced himself as an employee of the administration of the city of Efremov and said that they had prepared a gift for Masha. Alexey considered this suspicious and did not go anywhere.
Before the New Year, they came to their house with a search. They took away all the savings of Alexei – 125 thousand rubles and 3150 dollars, equipment and documents. They photographed Mashin's drawing with the inscription "Glory to Ukraine!".
After the search, Aleksey was taken to the FSB for interrogation, and Masha was taken to a “social institution”. The man was asked: “Where did you get the dollars from? Who is your owner? Who do you work for?" For the repeated “discrediting of the troops”, a criminal case was opened against him (part 1 of article 280.3 of the Criminal Code). According to Moskalev, during the interrogation he was beaten "with his head against the wall and the floor."
“In the afternoon they locked me in my office for two and a half hours, turned on the Russian anthem at full volume and left. The walls shook. After that, my heart sank. They were afraid that I would die there, they called an ambulance. The doctors took my blood pressure, gave me two pills, gave me an injection and left. After that, [the FSB] showed me my daughter’s comment on VKontakte: Masha writes to the post that “our guys are dying without sparing their lives,” “And for what amount do they die there – for two hundred thousand a month or a little more?'” – said Alexey.
The next day, Alexei was released, he took his daughter from the orphanage, they packed up and left Efremov. Under the article on repeated “discrediting”, Aleksey faces up to three years in prison. He is raising his daughter alone and is afraid that if he is imprisoned, she will end up in an orphanage.