A Russian man who spent more than a year in prison over an anti-war drawing that his daughter made in school has fled to France.
Alexei Moskalyov and his 17-year-old daughter Maria had previously tried receiving humanitarian visas in Germany due to what they described as harassment from law enforcement authorities in their native Tula region.
After Russian authorities rejected his passport application, Moskalyov asked InTransit, a legal rights group, to help him apply for a French humanitarian visa.
InTransit said Moskalyov and his daughter arrived in Paris on Thursday, noting that France is the only EU member country that issues humanitarian visas to Russians even when they do not have a passport.
France’s foreign ministry approved their visa applications last month, InTransit said, and on Tuesday, it issued humanitarian visas to Moskalyov and his daughter.
The group said Russia’s child protective services were currently looking for Maria over anti-war posts she had made on Telegram.
Moskalyov was sentenced to jail in March 2023 for “discrediting” the Russian military after his daughter drew a picture that was critical of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Following his arrest and imprisonment, Maria was handed over to an orphanage and then later to her estranged mother.
Moskalyov was released from prison in October 2024. He and his daughter later fled to Armenia.
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