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Russian dad who fled after being sentenced over daughter’s anti-war drawing arrested in Belarus

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A Russian single dad who fled the country after being sentenced to prison in a case involving his 13-year-old daughter’s anti-war drawing has been detained in Belarus, according to officials.
Alexei Moskalev was apprehended in the Belarusian capital of Mink on Wednesday night at the request of Russian police, according to the independent Russian news outlet SOTA Project.
Moskalev’s arrest came a day after he fled house arrest before a court sentenced him to two years for repeatedly discrediting Vladimir Putin’s military in social media posts — a claim he denies.
Dmitry Zakhvatov, a lawyer representing Moskalev, wrote on the social media platform Telegram that he has been unable to reach his client.
SOTA Project reported that Belarusian authorities likely located Moskalev by tracking his cellphone to the apartment in Minsk where he had been hiding.
“I can say that this operation to capture Moskalev was carried out at the highest level. It was sanctioned and carried out by the Belarusians, but coordinated between the [Russian security service] FSB and [the Belarusian] KGB,” Zakhvatov told independent Russian TV station TV Rain.
It was not immediately clear how or why Moskalev ended up in Belarus, which is Russia’s closest ally in the region.
Moskalev, 54, was charged with discreditation after his 13-year-old daughter, Masha, displayed a drawing in school in April that was critical of the war in Ukraine.
The child’s artwork depicted Ukraine’s flag with the words “Glory to Ukraine” on one side, and a Russian flag with the words “No to Putin/war” on the other.
Masha was taken away from her father by Russian authorities and placed in an orphanage earlier this month.

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