cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10215055
France has granted political asylum to Alexei Moskalev and his daughter, Masha, according to inTransit, the human rights group that assisted the family.
The Moskalevs arrived in France on a humanitarian visa in March 2026.
Moskalev has raised Masha alone. Authorities in the [Russian] Tula region took notice of the family after Masha drew an antiwar drawing in an art class.
As the independent Russian human rights media project OVD-Info reports,
In April 2022, sixth-grader Masha Moskaleva drew an anti-war picture in her art class. The girl depicted the Russian and Ukrainian flags with the words “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine”, and a woman with a child, at whom rockets were flying from the Russian side. After this, problems began: the [Russian] police got involved, and there were interviews with FSB officers.
In December 2022, the family’s home was searched. It turned out that a criminal case had been opened against the girl’s father, Alexei Moskalev, for repeated discrediting of the army because of posts on social media. Moskalev spent one year and ten months in a penal colony.
In 2023, he was sentenced to two years in a penal colony for “discrediting” the Russian army over comments he had posted on Odnoklassniki.
When Moskalev was placed under house arrest and later sent to the colony, Masha was transferred to a social rehabilitation center. Her mother, who had never raised her, later took her in.
Moskalev was released from the colony in 2024 and reclaimed his daughter. The two then left Russia.