Lida Moniava

Lidiya Igorevna Moniava (Russian: Ли́дия И́горевна Мониа́ва; born 29 November 1987), commonly known as Lida Moniava, is a Russian charity executive and pediatric palliative care advocate. She is a co-founder and director of the Lighthouse Charity Foundation, which supports children's hospice and palliative care programs in Moscow and the Moscow Region. Her work has focused on home-based care for seriously ill children, pain management and access to medicines, family support, and efforts to enable children and young adults with severe disabilities to participate in education and community life. In 2020, Moniava became the guardian of a boy known publicly as Kolya, who had previously lived in a residential institution; the case became the focus of public debate about disability inclusion and alternatives to institutional care. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she also helped organize a separate charitable initiative assisting people displaced by the war. Her charitable work has received several awards, including an RBC Prize and a Forbes Woman Mercury Award. Moniava has publicly opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In February 2026, a Moscow court fined her 45,000 rubles under an administrative provision prohibiting the "discrediting" of the Russian Armed Forces. On 2 September 2026, investigators searched her home, charged her under Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code with disseminating information about the Russian military that they alleged she knew to be false, and detained her. Moniava denied the charge. On 3 September, the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow imposed a pre-trial measure known as a "ban on certain actions" until 30 October, including a nighttime curfew, a ban on internet use, and restrictions on communication with witnesses.