Jailed war critic returned to solitary confinement for fifth time since April

Alexey Moskalyov, the Russian man serving a two-year jail sentence for “discrediting the Russian army” for a series of anti-war posts he made on social media, has been placed in a solitary confinement cell for the fifth time since his sentence began, his lawyer Vladimir Bilienko said on Wednesday.

Moskalyov has reportedly been given two weeks in an isolation cell, and told his lawyer that he is feeling well but that he often gets tired as he’s only allowed to use his bed between 10 PM and 6 AM. 

“This time around, he was sent to solitary confinement for resting his head on his hand while sitting at a table. He was accused of ‘turning the table into a bed’,” Russian human rights organisation OVD-Info noted on Wednesday.

Moskalyov, a single-parent from the Tula region, received widespread media attention after his daughter, Maria, drew a series of anti-war pictures that prompted her school to notify the authorities. While the police investigated the Moskalyov family, social media posts made by Alexey Moskalyov condemning the war came to light. Alexey was ultimately prosecuted and placed under house arrest pending his trial late last year.

However, just hours before he was due in court for sentencing, Moskalyov fled to Belarus. He was detained two days later by the authorities in Minsk and extradited to Russia in April.

In light of Moskalyov’s jailing, Russian child protection services placed his 13-year-old daughter in an orphanage in early March. Following a wave of media reports about the situation, the agency re-examined the case and granted the girl’s mother custody of her child.