Last April, 12-year-old Masha Moskalyova was asked to draw a drawing for an art class showing support for Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine.
Instead, he drew a mother and child standing in the path of the missiles with the captions “no to war” and “glory to Ukraine.”
The next day, her father Alexey Moskalyev, who was raising her alone in the town of Yefremov, in the Tula region, about 200 km (125 mi) south of Moscow, was called to her school.
Both the father and the daughter were taken away in police vehicles.
Alexey was questioned by local officers, who found derogatory comments he had made online about the Russian military, comparing them to rapists.
In court, Alexey was fined 32,000 rubles ($420) for bringing the armed forces into disrepute.
The next day, agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB) visited Masha’s school, accused her father of bad upbringing and said that Masha should be taken away. After that, Masha was too scared to come to class.
Alexey was eventually arrested and Masha was treated, a sign of just how far Russian authorities are going to clamp down on criticism of the war in Ukraine.
On December 30, 2022, five police cars and a fire truck had parked in front of her house.
Alexey told the Russian human rights group OVD-Info that he did not want to let them in without a warrant, but opened the door when they began to break it down.
Police and FSB ransacked the apartment and allegedly took the family’s life savings, mobile phones, laptops and Masha’s anti-war drawing.
At the time of writing, Russian authorities, including the Tula Region Investigative Committee, had not responded to a request for comment.
Alexey claimed that his head was smashed against a wall and that he was locked in a room with the national anthem played at full volume. He then was accused again of discrediting the army; he now faces up to three years in jail.
Last week, Alexey was held for two days in a pre-trial detention center, while Masha, now 13, was taken to a children’s shelter.
According to his lawyer, Vladimir Biliyenko, Alexey has since been released and is under house arrest.
“Alexey is under house arrest, he is only allowed to contact me and the investigators,” Biliyenko told Al Jazeera by phone.
“Masha is in a shelter. We are working to get her back and lift her house arrest. We have filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation. If the father receives a prison sentence, the daughter will be sent to a children’s home.
“The charge carries a maximum of three years, so it’s not that serious, and an actual term of imprisonment is relatively rare. But this is a political case, so it could go either way.”
Biliyenko did not comment on the alleged mistreatment of Alexey while in custody.
Svetlana Davydova, head of Yefremov’s youth affairs commission, told Russian state media RBC that the Moskalyevs had been placed on a list of “families in socially dangerous situations” and had filed a lawsuit to deprive the mother of Alexey and Masha, who lives in a different city, of their rights as parents.
Masha is currently stuck at the children’s center, which has told local media that they will not release her.
“It is common for the whole family to be dragged into the persecution, even if only one member is ‘guilty’ in the eyes of the regime, especially if that someone is a minor,” Dan Storyev, managing editor of OVD- told Al Jazeera. Info English.
In October last year, a 10-year-old schoolgirl from Moscow was detained after her classmates’ parents complained that her profile picture in a class group chat was “Saint Javelin,” a meme that has become a war symbol of the Ukrainian resistance: the Virgin. Mary dressed in yellow and blue, holding a large pistol.
Subsequently, the girl and her mother were questioned and their home searched, but no charges were ultimately filed.
In another case in eastern Siberia, the 16-year-old son of anti-war protester Natalia Filonova was sent to a remote orphanage 300 km (186 miles) from her home, while she was detained for participating in a demonstration and allegedly assault two policemen. with a pen.
“We are currently seeing a worrying trend of minors being persecuted by the regime, along with their families,” Storyev continued. “The regime’s goal is to inspire fear, so they threaten families with separation, claiming that the parents are not raising the children well, as was the case with Alexey (Moskalyev).”
Storyev listed other cases in which minors under the age of 18 have confronted the authorities after expressing anti-war positions.
He said that in Moscow, police stopped at a boy’s house and cut off the electricity after he expressed his position on Ukraine. Two high school students were harassed by the public for refusing to stand up during the Russian national anthem and playing the Ukrainian anthem instead. In Yekaterinburg, another boy was publicly reprimanded for writing a letter to a soldier, urging him not to kill and to return home. And a 16-year-old was fined for saying that if he was recruited, he would fight for Ukraine, Storyev said.
“According to our data, at least 544 minors have been detained at anti-war protests in the past year, and seven minors are currently on criminal prosecution for their anti-war positions,” it said. “In particular, minors are targeted for sharing posts or comments about anti-war rallies, distributing anti-mobilization and anti-war leaflets, holding solo demonstrations, expressing anti-war views during school events, demonstrating (a) anti-war garment and make anti-war inscriptions”.
Storyev also mentioned that there have been cases where young teenagers were arrested for more direct actions, such as sabotaging the railways and the burning of the military recruitment offices.
Meanwhile, the authorities are trying to win over the younger generation to their way of thinking, with classes to instill patriotism and an after-school program of “important talks,” examining recent events from the perspective of the Kremlin.
“The regime is trying to get children into a heavily militarized culture,” Storyev said. “Attempts to do that have been going on long before the war: the state sponsors cadet schools and cadet classes within regular schools. (Masha) went to such a school with cadet classes, ”he said.
“Through attacks on schools, children and parents, the Kremlin aims to destroy and terrorize Russian civil society, but despite everything, Russian activists, including children and parents, continue to oppose the war, even a horrible cost.”