Founder of Russian children’s hospice charged with spreading ‘fakes’ about the Russian military. She faces up to 10 years in prison.
Investigators have charged Lida Moniava, founder of the children’s hospice “House with a Lighthouse,” with spreading “false information” about the Russian military motivated by political hatred — a charge under Article 207.3, Part 2, Clause “d” of Russia’s Criminal Code — and detained her, according to her defense attorney, Mikhail Biryukov, who told the Russian business news outlet RBC.
The statute carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Biryukov said the case stems from a post Moniava published on her Telegram channel in February 2023. Moniava has not pleaded guilty. The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that investigators plan to ask the court to send her to a pretrial detention center.
Investigators searched Moniava’s home on the morning of September 2 and then took her to the Investigative Committee, Russia’s federal investigating authority, for questioning.
A Moscow court fined Moniava 45,000 rubles in February 2026 on an administrative charge of “discrediting” the Russian military, stemming from three posts on her Telegram channel. In one, she linked to a “Christmas Message to Friends” by Orthodox Christians living in emigration, published by The Moscow Times, which spoke of “the terrible war unleashed by the Russian state.” Another described the deaths of children after a Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih. A third recounted the deaths of the Martynenko family in a Russian strike on Sumy.
After being fined on the “discrediting” charge, Moniava said she had no plans to leave Russia, despite advice from many people that she do so.
Moniava founded the children’s hospice “House with a Lighthouse” and in 2018 became head of the charitable foundation of the same name, which supports critically ill children and young adults up to age 30. After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, she launched a separate fund to help refugees from Ukraine, Russia’s border regions, and Nagorno-Karabakh; it suspended operations in September 2025.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.