[Skybird]

Sometimes voices can be heard that demand to think about the time after the war, then to get along with Russia again, to reach out to it.

To illustrate what it is that you want to shake hands with, this story from the Frankfurter Allgemeine.

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Masha paints rockets



In Russia, children are supposed to produce patriotic drawings for the soldiers at the front in class. One girl submits an anti-war drawing. Then the secret service arrives.

Children are also used to justify President Vladimir Putin's "special operation. For example, by making maps and drawings for soldiers at school. Last April, this was also the task of a sixth-grade art class at a school in Yefremov, a small town in the Tula region a good 300 kilometers south of Moscow.

But what the student, Mariya Moskalyova, called Masha, painted did not meet expectations: Her picture shows a Ukrainian flag with the words "Glory to Ukraine" written on it, and next to it a mother with a child. Missiles are flying toward the two from the direction of the Russian tricolor, which reads "No to war." The single father of the girl, Alexei Moskaliev, told journalists that "everything started" with the drawing.

The art teacher went to the principal of the school, who called the police, who asked all the children for their names at the entrance to the school. His daughter knew what it was about, gave a false name and slipped through. The next day, he went to pick up the frightened child from school. Again, the principal called the police.
Proceedings under the new censorship laws

The latter showed up with the equivalent of the youth welfare office, he said. He was shown the drawing, Moskaljow said. He asked what was special about it, saying that his daughter was "against war, against bloodshed". On the same day, a misdemeanor case was opened against him under military censorship laws enacted in early March 2022: The entrepreneur, who raised ornamental birds such as peacocks and pheasants, was charged with pro-Ukrainian comments and Putin caricatures on his social media appearances. Because of the words "Army of Russia. Perpetrators of violence next to us" a fine was imposed on him.

That was just the beginning. Employees of the FSB intelligence agency took the child out of class, the father recounted. He rushed to the school, where the agents told him that he was not raising his daughter "properly," threatening "that she would be taken away from me and I would be put away." The suggestion that "Masha should lead a youth team in support of the Russian troops" he "kindly refused" because the daughter was so busy.

She then stopped going to school, and the father reportedly requested that she be home-schooled. In December, at the girl's former school, children posed with thumbs up in front of the slogans "For Peace - For Russia - For the President," each with a "Z," the main symbol of war. As in many places.

Then, at the end of December, the father and daughter were raided. All savings, computers and telephones were confiscated, the daughter was photographed with her drawing, Moskaljow said. The daughter was sent to a children's home, and the father was interrogated by the FSB. In the process, he reported, his head was banged "against the wall and the floor." He had been asked why part of his savings, $3150, was in this very currency: "Who is your master? Who are you working for?" Then, he said, he was left alone, but Russia's national anthem was played at full volume. He had developed health problems, the FSB called the emergency services, then showed him a social media comment by his daughter asking how much money a month "our boys" were dying for in Ukraine.

A criminal case was opened against Moskaliev for "repeatedly discrediting" the army. He faces up to three years in prison. He was initially released and was able to pick up his daughter. Moskaljow sold his birds, contacted the child's mother, who had been separated from him for a long time and who, according to Moskaljow, had not wanted to take Marija. In the interview with journalists published at the end of February, the father feared that his daughter would be permanently placed in a children's home if he were arrested.

Shortly after, on March 1, he was arrested. The thirteen-year-old stayed behind, then went to a "social rehabilitation center for minors" called "Youth" - and stayed there after a court released her father to house arrest. Now authorities want to limit his parenting rights. An online petition to send the girl home to her father already had nearly 77,000 signatures as of Thursday evening. For Russia, that's a lot.
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6th class, so the girl's age is around 12.


No, we must not, under no circumstances, reach out to such a Russia, must not shake hands with it. What we must is building a new iron curtain and contain the existential danger that Russia is for all world. We cannot escape to be geograpohical neighbour to this Russia. But we can learn again to be prepared.



But is that really wanted in Europe? Opposite to the media chorus, I have my doubts.