The Kremlin has damaged its silence on the case of a single father sentenced to jail after his daughter’s anti-war drawing provoked the wrath of Vladimir Putin’s safety companies.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, instructed reporters on Wednesday the case in opposition to Alexei Moskalev is just not as “easy” because it appears and attacked him for his “lamentable” parenting.
“Certainly, [it was] very lamentable with the efficiency of parental duties and with the availability of the kid’s dwelling,” Peskov claimed, saying the case in opposition to Moskalev is definitely “very outdated.”
“I don’t wish to and may’t go into particulars, however the whole lot is far more difficult, the whole lot is just not so easy,” he stated.
His feedback got here amid rising outrage that the Kremlin is outwardly utilizing the one father from the Tula area—and his 13-year-old daughter—to make an instance for some other would-be dissenters.
The one father was sentenced to 2 years in jail on Tuesday for supposedly “discrediting” the Russian army after his daughter Masha drew an image that includes the phrases “No to conflict” and “Glory to Ukraine” at college. Police got here for Moskalev and his daughter the very subsequent day. Prosecutors later claimed they’d additionally discovered feedback by Moskalev on social media wherein he criticized the Russian army.
Moskalev fled from home arrest earlier than he may very well be taken to serve his sentence, a Russian court docket stated. Whereas that announcement was instantly met by suspicion that one thing could have occurred to him in custody, Maria Ovsyannikova, a former propagandist who made headlines with an on-air anti-war protest final yr, stated she knew the individuals who helped Moskalev escape and that he was in “secure palms.”
His daughter, in the meantime, has successfully been deemed an orphan by the federal government because of the case in opposition to her father. Authorities say she is presently in a youngsters’s rehabilitation middle.
In a heartbreaking letter to her father revealed Wednesday, Masha wrote, “I really like you very a lot, and know that you simply’ve accomplished nothing fallacious.”
“I consider that the whole lot will likely be OK and we will likely be collectively,” she stated.
“Sometime we’ll sit on the desk collectively and keep in mind all of this… I’m proud. Sure, Papa, I can say that I’m happy with my father,” she wrote, including that she was grateful to have understood “the bitter fact, reasonably than a candy lie.”
“I urge of you—simply don’t hand over,” she wrote, signing the be aware: “Love you, you’re a hero. My hero.”