Being reduced to silence, separated from his daughter then incarcerated for 19 months before fleeing Russia, all for a schoolgirl’s drawing: if denouncing the war cost him dearly, Alexey Moskaliov says he regrets nothing.
Today refugees in Strasbourg, in the east of France, father and daughter agreed to tell AFP their story, as tragic as it is incredible, which has become a symbol of the repression which has fallen on any critical voice since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Missiles fly over a Russian flag towards a woman and child standing near a Ukrainian flag. “No to Putin and the war”, is written on the first.
This drawing will change the life of Maria Moskaliova at only 12 years old, and that of her father. The school director immediately alerted the authorities in Efremov, a small town south of Moscow where the Moskaliovs live.
“What’s criminal about that?” Alexeï asks the police, who then threaten to take away his parental rights and monitor his social networks, where they discover harsh comments about the conflict.
“My daughter and I are not at war with Ukraine and its people,” he then assumes.
Alexey Moskaliov takes his daughter out of school in the hope that they will be left alone, but this is only the beginning of the problems. A few months later, he was placed under house arrest, then sentenced to two years in prison for having “discredited the army”.
An attempt to flee Russia failed: he was arrested in Belarus and handed over to the authorities of his country. He will be incarcerated in “five different prisons”.
The 58-year-old man says he suffered pressure, mistreatment and was placed in a disciplinary cell. But the most difficult, he assures, was the separation from his daughter, whom he raised alone.
– “Abandoned” –
Their separation arouses a lot of emotion in Russia. After Alexeïs placement under house arrest in March 2023, Maria spends a month in a reception center.
“I was completely isolated,” says the teenager, now 16 years old. “I didn’t know who to ask for news.”
Then, when Alexei Moskalyov fled to Belarus, the authorities told him: “Your father abandoned you.”
Finally, Maria goes to her mother, whom she no longer sees.
For Alexeï, this separation is heartbreaking. Weeks after his arrest in Belarus, a letter reached him. His lawyer tells him that Maria is safe and sound.
“From that moment on, my own fate no longer mattered to me,” he assures. “I said to myself: now you can kill me, cut me into pieces, execute me… do whatever you want.”
Once, a fellow inmate tried to kill him – an attack he claims was sponsored by the prison administration. The man, a mercenary from the Wagner group, wanted to convince him to join the Ukrainian front. Faced with her refusal, he tries to strangle her during the night.
“I managed to free myself, but I had a head injury, there was blood – he hit my head against the metal bed.”
– Doing politics –
During a prison transfer, he discovers that certain inmates are subjected to particularly cruel treatment.
“We put canvas bags over their faces, we taped their mouths to prevent them from speaking,” says Moskaliov. “They were Ukrainian prisoners of war.”
The weeks spent in the disciplinary cell are unbearable. “I called it the ‘torture cell’,” he says. “It was freezing cold there. Wake-up time was at 5 a.m., lights out at 9 p.m. During all this time, I had to stay up and move so as not to freeze.”
At night, he covers himself as best he can to protect himself from rat bites.
Upon his release from prison in October 2024, Alexeï finds his daughter. A few days later, departure for Armenia.
From there, they hope to reach Germany, but Berlin has tightened its asylum rules. After a year and a half of waiting, they resigned themselves to trying something else. France agrees to welcome them.
In Strasbourg since March, father and daughter have been trying to rebuild their lives. Maria learns French so she can finally finish her studies. She wants to go into politics.
“I really hope that things will change in Russia,” she confides.
Neither of them regrets having denounced the war. “My convictions are worth more than all the riches in the world,” concludes the father.
published on June 12 at 4:23 p.m., AFP
