Social services kidnap children from Russian mother in Finland

Another scandal is brewing Between Russia and Finland. Today, Jan. 23^rd, children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov made a statement about the actions of child protection services in Finland, after they took two children away from Svetlana Karelina of Russia.

In late November, the woman came to Finland for two weeks on a tourist visa to visit her ex-husband. Six-year-old twins Artyom and Sonia Karelin were taken away from the mother when they were visiting their father. Both children hold only Russian citizenship and live with their mother in Russia after their parents divorced. Now, according to Finnish lawyer Johan Beckman, child protection services try to fence off the Russian children in every possible way from the Russian culture and language and do not let them see their mother.

Astakhov called the withdrawal of children from Svetlana Karelina an act of "international kidnapping" and noted that such actions of Finnish authorities pass all bounds.

"In fact, according to international standards and the Hague Convention, such actions should be classified as an international child abduction," says the Commissioner for Children's Rights.

This is not the first intervention of Finnish authorities in the affairs of Russian citizens. The case of Russian citizen Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya still continues: Finnish social protection agencies took four children from the woman. On January 16^th, the Supreme Administrative Court and the Administrative Court of Helsinki supported the decision to withdraw the children from Zavgorodnyaya.