An unorthodox romance

Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian children’s rights commissioner accused of war crimes, leaves her husband for ‘Orthodox oligarch’ Konstantin Malofeev

Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, whom the International Criminal Court charged with war crimes for her alleged role in the illegal deportations of children from Ukraine to Russia, is in a romantic relationship with Orthodox media tycoon Konstantin Malofeev, according to new reporting from the outlet Verstka. Lvova-Belova has not announced a divorce from her husband, Orthodox priest Pavel Kogelman (with whom she’s raising 10 children), and her relationship with Malofeev has reportedly exacerbated existing tensions between the ultraconservative billionaire and Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill. Here’s what we know.

In the nearly three years since Maria Lvova-Belova was appointed Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, the pro-Kremlin media has regularly published stories about her family. She and her husband, Orthodox priest Pavel Kogelman, have spoken publicly about their “traditional values,” their Christian faith, their relationship, their experience with adoption, and what it’s like to raise 10 children.

Internationally, meanwhile, Lvova-Belova has made headlines for overseeing the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia amid Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She even went so far as to “adopt“ a Ukrainian child herself: a 17-year-old from Mariupol named Filipp Golovnya. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Lvova-Belova and Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.

Now, the children’s rights commissioner is making headlines for a very different reason: an alleged romance with “Orthodox oligarch” Konstantin Malofeev.

An oligarch with close ties to the Russian Orthodox Church and the founder of the ultraconservative TV network Tsargrad, Malofeev is under U.S. and the E.U. sanctions for financing separatists in eastern Ukraine beginning in 2014. He once referred to Putin as a “miracle of God” and is known for repeatedly calling for Russia to become a monarchy.

Posts on Lvova-Belova’s Telegram account suggest that she began working closely with Malofeev in early 2023. That January, they announced the launch of a joint charity project to help Ukrainian children called Happy Childhood. Its mission statement begins with the sentence: “A Russian child cannot be an orphan as long as at least one Russian adult is alive.” In February 2023, the two traveled together to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions.

Speculation that the ombudsman and the oligarch were romantically involved first appeared in the media in late 2023, but there was no evidence that their relationship was anything but professional until mid-July 2024, when they were filmed holding hands at a church service in Yekaterinburg.

Lvova-Belova has not publicly reported a divorce or separation from her husband, who has taken part in several of her initiatives over the last year. In the summer of 2023, for example, he spoke about “family values” to a group of Ukrainian children at an “integration camp” in Moscow. According to him, the children were especially interested in the story of how he “asked God for his wife.”

In February 2024, the Orthodox Christian TV channel Spas aired an episode of its program “In Search of God” dedicated to Lvova-Belova and Kogelman’s family. In it, the priest tells the story of when he first noticed Lvova-Belova in a church in their native Penza, how the two decided to start adopting children, and how he left behind his programming career to become a priest.

At least six sources confirmed to Verstka journalists that Maria Lvova-Belova and Konstantin Malofeev are in a romantic relationship. A source close to the human rights commissioner’s charity projects said that her younger children live with their father, and a source close to Malofeev added that Lvova-Belova is living separately from the rest of her family.

Malofeev reportedly divorced his wife in the summer of 2023. One year earlier, he said in an interview with RT that if his own daughter told him that she wanted to divorce her husband, he would “give her a beating.”

Sources close to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Putin administration told Verstka that Malofeev’s relationship with church leader Patriarch Kirill soured after rumors of his romance with Lvova-Belova first surfaced. A source close to Malofeev, however, said that his falling out with the Orthodox patriarch began even earlier and stemmed from the media mogul’s political ambitions.

A religious scholar close to the Orthodox Church called these political ambitions “gigantic” and expressed surprise that Malofeev has so far been unable to realize them, “given his money and opportunities.” According to a source close to the Putin administration, Malofeev’s relationship with Lvova-Belova served as a pretext for Patriarch Kirill to distance himself from the oligarch, whom he views as a competitor.

Konstantin Malofeev blocked the number of Verstka’s correspondent after they called to ask about his divorce. Maria Lvova-Belova did not respond to Verstka’s calls. Pavel Kogelman declined to answer Verstka’s questions and directed their correspondent to the Russian Orthodox Church’s press service.

Reporting by Verstka. English-language summary by Sam Breazeale.