ROME. She married an Orthodox priest, five natural children and eighteen adopted. Maria Lvova-Belova has been the Commissioner for Children’s Rights of the Russian Federation since October 2021. Born in 1984 in the city of Penza, 700km from Moscow, she worked as a guitar teacher at local children’s music schools before embarking on a political career, first at the regional and then at the national level, joining the ranks in 2019 of the United Russia party, that of Vladimir Putin.
Russia-Ukraine war, the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Putin
Lvova-Belova, who has a very close relationship with the Russian president, is considered by international human rights activists “one of the figures most involved in the deportation and adoption by Russia of Ukrainian children, as well as in the use of camps to ‘integrate’ them into Russian society and culture».
Last November, the woman adopted a teenager from the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol after she said he lost his mother to cancer. The International Court has requested his arrest warrant for the illegal deportation of children and their illegal transfer from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. Lvova-Belova had already been sanctioned by the European Union in July 2022. Her reaction to the news is ironic. “It’s great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we don’t leave them in war zones, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with caring people”, the words her. The commissioner, strengthened by Moscow’s non-recognition of the ICC’s decisions, assures that she “will continue to work”.