Russian court rules to keep Alexey Moskalyov, whose daughter drew anti-war picture, under house arrest. Prosecutor requested he be sent to detention centre

The Yefremov Inter-District Court in Russia’s Tula region has ruled to keep Alexey Moskalyov, whose daughter drew an anti-war picture at school in 2022, under house arrest, Mediazona reports.

Moskalyov has been under house arrest since the beginning of March due to being charged with repeated “discreditation” of the Russian army.

The prosecutor asked for Moskalyov to be sent to a pre-trial detention centre, justifying his request with the fact that the house arrest “has been violated several times”. However, the criminal executive inspection reports that there was only one violation — on 15 March, from 2:43 AM to 3:31 AM.

Moskalyov explained that the ankle bracelet’s signal does not spread to all the rooms of his flat. “When I entered the bedroom, the device stopped working, so [when the device was being installed] I was told I could sleep in the living room instead,” he clarified. One of the rooms where there is no signal is the bathroom, Mediazona notes.

At the end, the court ruled that Moskalyov should stay under house arrest.

Moskalyov was detained on 1 March; his daughter Masha was sent to a children’s home in the town of Yefremov where they both live. The town’s social rehabilitation centre later clarified that Masha would not be “allowed” to leave the children’s home to return to her father. Currently, the case on restriction of Moskalyov’s parental rights is being considered in court.

In April 2022, the girl drew an anti-war picture — she drew Russian and Ukrainian flags and wrote the slogan “No to war” — during an art class at school. Afterwards, the Federal Security Service (FSB) officers had a talk with her, while a protocol on “discrediting” the Russian army was drawn up against her father whose anti-war posts and comments had been discovered online.