ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Now we're returning to a story we first brought you from a small Russian town a few hundred miles outside of Moscow in 2023. It involved a single father who was sentenced to prison after his then-12-year-old daughter was caught at school with drawings critical of Russia's war in Ukraine.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The forceful separation of a family highlighted the extent to which the Kremlin was willing to go to stomp out antiwar sentiment. It also has a few new developments, as NPR's Charles Maynes reports.
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CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: As the gates of the prison colony open, Alexei Moskalev walked out a free man and into the tearful embrace of his now 14-year-old daughter, Masha, for the first time in nearly two years. Moskalev was sentenced to prison for discrediting the Russian Army over its actions in Ukraine, but it's how his troubles came about that generated global headlines. Authorities' interest in Moskalev's political views started in 2022 when Masha made an antiwar drawing for a school assignment. The principal informed the police, who later found similar ideas in Moskalev's social media postings and filed formal charges.
VLADIMIR BILIENKO: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: "Yet it was the state's decision to imprison him and forcibly separate the family that suggested this was cruelty by design," says Moskalev's lawyer Vladimir Bilienko, in an interview with NPR.
BILIENKO: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: "Prosecutors told me it was a demonstrative flogging," says Bilienko, "to show everyone that the government can do whatever they want to you using the law."
In comments to Russian media, Moskalev thanked those who supported him throughout his ordeal. He said he'd received letters from all over Russia and the world while in jail.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ALEXEI MOSKALEV: America, Germany, Anglia...
MAYNES: Bilienko, the lawyer, credits public outrage and international media coverage for ultimately shaming the Russian authorities into keeping the family together - the only thing that ever really mattered to his client.
BILIENKO: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: "The authorities realized they went too far," he says, "'cause they could have taken away Alexei's parental rights and sent Masha to an orphanage."
For now, Moskalev and his daughter will return to their home in the nearby town of Yefremov to rest and catch up on the past two years of their lives. That's where, before the war in Ukraine, they were happy - a Russian father and his only daughter living normal lives in more normal times.
Charles Maynes, NPR News, Moscow. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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