Russian dad convicted in antiwar case keeps parental rights

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A prominent rights group says a Russian court has dropped the authorities’ lawsuit to restrict the parental rights of a single father convicted of discrediting the army and sentenced to prison following his daughter’s antiwar sketch at school. After Alexei Moskalyov was arrested, his 13-year-old daughter Maria was placed in an orphanage. Last month the authorities filed a lawsuit to restrict him and Maria’s mother, who hasn’t been involved in her upbringing, in their parental rights. After the mother picked Maria up from the orphanage and said she would be raising her, child service officials withdrew the lawsuit. OVD-Info, a rights group involved in the case, said Friday, citing Moskalyov’s lawyer, that a court in Yefremov, the family’s hometown, has dropped the lawsuit.