“If you want to get people crying, show them a lost child, ideally one holding a kitten,” Medinsky said. “So that’s what they’re showing us.”
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Of all the children on the list Putin saw, perhaps the best-documented case is that of Margarita Prokopenko, who was only a few months old when the Russian invasion began. Abandoned at birth by her mother, Margarita was the youngest of several dozen children living in a home for orphans and kids with disabilities in the city of Kherson. In early March 2022, Russian troops overran that city and installed a puppet government to run it. Many of those who showed open resistance to the occupation were arrested or killed.
A member of the Russian parliament, Igor Kastyukevich, soon arrived from Moscow to help cement the Kremlin’s control, and he began making frequent visits to the orphanage that spring. Kastyukevich, who represents Putin’s political party, would often arrive in the company of armed men, dressed in camouflage, and bring food and other supplies for the children, according to videos he posted online to document the visits. Early that fall, Kastyukevich and other Russian officials began taking the children away, they said, to ensure their safety. Margarita, the youngest, was among the first.