In Russia, a girl who was taken from her father last month after drawing a pro-Ukrainian cartoon at school has been handed over to her mother by authorities.
In early March, Russian authorities separated 13-year-old Maria Moskalyova from her single father, Alexei Moskalyov, and placed her in a rehabilitation center in the small town of Efremov, south of Moscow.
Last week, his father escaped house arrest after a Russian court found him guilty of “discrediting” the Russian military and sentenced him to two years in prison.
The police arrested him in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. On Thursday in the city of Efremov he is due to appear in court for the deprivation of the right to custody of the child.
Ahead of the hearing, Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, whose arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for her role in the “deportation” of Ukrainian children, said announced that Maria had been returned to her mother.
The girl has not lived with her mother Olga Sichichina for many years. “As many know, she didn’t live long with her mother, she communicated very little,” Ms Lvova-Belova told Telegram on Wednesday evening. – At first, Masha did not want to go to her mother. But her position has changed, she told me about it on the phone.”
AFP was unable to verify this, and activists and lawyers complained that they were unable to contact Maria.
But Ms Lvova-Belova said it was a “miracle”. “During the conversation with the mother, after learning all the details of her life that immediately struck me, I said to myself: what if a miracle was really possible,” she said.
Local media quoted the director of the rehabilitation center where Maria was staying as saying “social pedagogues and psychologists” were working with the girl.
The Kremlin tried to justify the case of A. Moskaliov, saying his father’s upbringing was “deplorable”.
Last week, after the escape of A. Moskaliovas from his house arrest, activists published Maria’s letter to her father, the authenticity of which was confirmed by lawyers. “I love you very much and I know you are innocent of everything,” she wrote in her letter, calling her father “my hero.”
Source: The Delfi
