Maria Lvova-Belova

Lvova-Belova was born into a Russian family in Penza, a city in the Russian SFSR of the erstwhile Soviet Union, on 25 October 1984. She graduated from the A. A. Arkhangelsky College of Culture and Arts as a conductor in 2002.

Deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia

Lvova-Belova has been closely involved with the program of abducting Ukrainian children to Russia, being present at an event in Moscow where 14 Ukrainian children received their Russian identity papers in July 2022. In September 2022, she reported that a group of children from Mariupol had at first shown their resistance by singing the Ukrainian national anthem, but had soon learned to "love Russia". Ukrainian and British officials accused her of supervising the forcible deportation and adoption of children from Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian programs to transfer Ukrainian children to Russia and re-educate them as Russians had begun in 2014.

Lvova-Belova married Pavel Kogelman, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and formerly a programmer, in 2003. They have five biological and eighteen adopted children. The former were born in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2014 and 2018. In February 2023, she adopted a 15-year-old boy from Mariupol, which The Moscow Times said would likely spark outrage due to the concurrent deportation program.

In 2024, she was reported to be in a romantic relationship with Orthodox media tycoon Konstantin Malofeev. The two reportedly married at a ceremony in the elite village of Deauville in Moscow Oblast in September 2024.

Activities between 2011 and 2021

From 2011 to 2014 and 2017 to 2019, she was a member of the Civic Chamber of Penza Oblast, the latter term overlapping one in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. In 2019, she was elected co-chair of the All-Russia People's Front regional headquarters.

In 2019, Lvova-Belova joined the United Russia party (the ID card was given to her on 23 November by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev). On 24 November, she was elected to the Presidium of the General Council of the United Russia, and she became the co-chair of the working group to support civil society. In September 2020, reelected governor of Penza Oblast Ivan Belozertsev appointed her to the Federation Council of Russia from Penza Oblast's executive branch. After the 2021 snap election, she was reappointed by Oleg Melnichenko.

On 27 October 2021, Russian president Vladimir Putin appointed Senator Maria Lvova-Belova as the federal Commissioner for Children's Rights, one month after previous commissioner Anna Kuznetsova became an MP.

International sanctions and ICC arrest warrant

She was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in June 2022, by the European Union in July 2022, by the United States in September 2022, and by Japan in January 2023.

A warrant for Lvova-Belova's arrest was issued by the International Criminal Court on 17 March 2023, which alleges she is responsible for the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia during the invasion; a similar warrant was issued for Putin.

In 2025 Lvova-Belova gave an interview to Russian media in which he admitted she "forcibly took a child from Mariupol for herself", changed his legal name and "reeducated" him to suppress his Ukrainian identity which he manifested while opposing the forced transfer to Moscow. Lvova-Belova also admitted that the ICC warrant makes life difficult for her.

In May 2026 children abducted to Russia and then returned to Ukraine testified that Lvova-Belova personally told them that they are "Russian children, that Russia will win, that Russia is the best country ever, and that we would have more opportunities there than in Ukraine", which will "exist no more soon", clarifying that the best career path for them would be to join Russian "youth military programs".