“I didn’t even think about leaving there alive.” Report on Alexei Moskalev's first hours of freedom - next to his daughter

“We will show you what kind of allies we are”

On March 27, 2023, the day before the court verdict in the case of “repeated discrediting” of the army (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code), Alexey Moskalev went on the run.

He talks about it this way: “The prosecutor asked for two years. The trial went extremely quickly, even the lawyer was surprised. The verdict was already due on the 28th. I only had one night left. The people I talked to said: “Alexey, they will close you down one hundred percent, you have the last decisive night to leave, think about it.” I said that I wouldn’t go anywhere without Masha. They assured: “We guarantee that we will bring Masha to you, there is simply no way to take you two out now.” If they hadn’t given me guarantees, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere without a child.”

The people with whom Moskalev communicated took him to Belarus. As Alexey says, they did not allow him to throw away the electronic tracking bracelet that FSIN employees installed when Moskaleva was given house arrest as a preventive measure. After escaping, the bracelet was cut off, but they said that throwing it away was “a bad omen,” and that it would not be possible to find a person using the bracelet in another country.

“We arrived in Belarus at half past twelve in the afternoon,” recalls Moskalev. — In the evening we got ready for bed and changed clothes. I went out to look out the window and saw that some people in camouflage and with flashlights were walking around the neighbor’s property. My heart began to beat: something was wrong. I think they found us using GPS, but they got the address a little mixed up. Five minutes later they started banging on the door. I hear the landlady shouting: “Guys, don’t knock down the door, I’ll open it now!” I opened it and they burst in, laying all the guests, including us, face down. They received us very harshly, they said: “We will show you what kind of allies we are, you will remember us for a long time.”

The media then wrote that Moskalev and his entourage were found because Alexey turned on his mobile phone. Moskalev himself thinks that they were identified by their bracelet. He doesn't blame the people who helped him escape.