‘I just can’t block this out’

Punk singer ‘Chacha’ Ivanov spoke out in support of the Moskalev family at a recent concert

The case of 13-year-old Masha Moskaleva, who drew an anti-war picture in school art class in April 2022, has captivated certain segments of the Russian population. The drawing set off a cascade of legal problems for Moskaleva and her single father, Alexey Moskalev, who was sentenced, on April 5, to two years in prison for his own posts on social media. At a concert in Moscow on April 15, Alexander “Chacha” Ivanov, frontman for the punk band Naive, wore a T-shirt emblazoned with Masha Moskaleva’s name and spoke to the audience about her case.

Alexander “Chacha” Ivanov, the singer for the Russian punk band Naive, wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words Masha Moskaleva on stage at an April 15 concert. He also spoke to the audience about the persecution of the Moskalev family, writes Mediazona.

“Friends, I’m taking this opportunity. I can’t pass it up, I’ve tried to block out this affair, but I don’t know, I can’t do it, I don’t understand why, it worked for some reason with everything else. This thing with Masha Moskaleva somehow just won’t leave me alone. Maybe it’s because my own daughter is about the same age — she’s 14, and Masha is 13. Friends, I want to ask you to google this case, find out what happened, be horrified about what happened to Masha and her family because of a drawing she did during art class,” said the musician.

The audience reacted to Ivanov’s words with applause and started chanting “Fuck the war!”

Naive’s concert took place at the club 1930 Moscow.

Sixth-grader Masha Moskaleva, from the city of Efremov in Russia’s Tula region, drew an anti-war picture during school art class in April 2022, writing “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine” on the drawing. Moskaleva was subsequently interrogated by the FSB, and her father, Alexey Moskalev, who was raising her alone, was charged with “discrediting” the army based on some of his own social media posts.

In December 2022, Moskalev was charged with repeatedly “discrediting” the army based on a social media post he wrote about the murders in Bucha. In early March 2023, Moskalev was placed under house arrest. His daughter was taken into state custody, and a commission on juvenile affairs filed a lawsuit to limit Moskalev’s parental rights. On March 28, a Tula regional court sentenced him to two years in prison.

Moskalev was not at his sentencing hearing, having escaped from house arrest hours before. Within two days, he was apprehended in Minsk and extradited to Russia. On April 5, Masha Moskaleva’s estranged mother, Olga Sitchikhina, collected her daughter from state custody.