The 13-year-old daughter of a Russian single dad jailed for “discrediting” the Russian military is being handed over to a foster family as the Kremlin puts war propaganda above the “traditional values” they routinely preach.
Maria Lvova-Belova—the children’s rights ombudsman accused by the Hague of war crimes involving children along with Russian President Vladimir Putin—said at a Tuesday briefing that “several applicants” were in the running to take in Masha Moskaleva.
The teen has been forced to stay in the custody of the Russian government ever since authorities took her father away last year—a day after she provoked the wrath of the security services with an anti-war drawing made at school. The Kremlin has since appeared to use the Moskalev family as an example for any other would-be dissenters. Masha’s father, Alexei, was sentenced to two years behind bars last week as Putin’s spokesman publicly decried his “lamentable” parenting skills.
“Right now it is important for us that the child is raised within a family,” Lvova-Belova said at a briefing Tuesday, according to the RAPSI news service. “I have met with blood relatives, but so far the relatives refuse to take Masha, perhaps in light of the high-profile nature of the situation and because they didn’t really communicate with the child. But we have several applicants for the position of a foster family.”
She said there is one family in particular that the teen is supposedly ready to be given to, and then used the opportunity to take a jab at Masha’s biological mother, who told Russian media last week that she wanted to take custody of her daughter.
“There is information that the mother is ready to take her child, but I wouldn’t count on that, to be honest, because the mother has promised several times to come, and never came. She doesn’t keep up contact with her daughter and they have considerably complicated relations,” Lvova-Belova said.
In a heartbreaking letter to her father published after his sentencing last week, Masha Moskaleva wrote, “I love you very much, and know that you’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I believe that everything will be OK and we will be together,” she said.
“I beg of you—just don’t give up,” she wrote, signing the note: “Love you, you’re a hero. My hero.”
While the Moskalev case has made headlines worldwide for the politically motivated destruction of a Russian family, Russian authorities have also abducted thousands of Ukrainian children from Ukrainian territory since the start of the full-scale war last year, with Lvova-Belova often proudly posting photos of the “orphaned children” on social media. Activists have said some of those kids were put up for adoption in Russian families despite the fact that they still had Ukrainian relatives back home.