Russian boy torn between three countries

Pravda.Ru continues to watch the story of Russian woman Irina Bergseth, who had her two children taken away from her by Norwegian authorities. The woman is currently awaiting for the decision from the Polish court regarding her son, whom she took out of Norway. A new turn has taken place in Irina's life. The Russian side delivered the custody right for the boy to his grandmother. The decision has been made to help the child come back to Russia as soon as possible. It does not mean, though, that the grandmother will be able to take the boy home. It is up for the court to make the final decision.

Photo: Source: First Channel

Read previous articles about the story of Irina Bergseth on Pravda.Ru:

Russian boy becomes sex slave to his own father in Norway

Russian mother desperately fights for her abused children in Norway

Russian boy hopes for Queen's help

Norway's child protection services do whatever they want to helpless children

Irina and her son Alexander have been staying in Poland for more than a month now. We would like to remind here that a Polish detective took the boy out of Norway after he had been separated from his mother and delivered to a foster family there. Poland was supposed to become a short-term transit stop on the way home to Russia. However, Norway interfered in the situation and demanded Alexander be returned to Norway. It is not clear yet, when Irina and her son are going to come back to Russia. In Poland, the boy has been living with a foster family too.

Russian officials take an active participation in the fate of the child. To help the boy return to Russia faster, it was decided to deliver the custody right for the boy to his grandmother, who lives in Sochi.

"The woman had to collect a stack of documents. She had to prove that she had neither criminal record, nor life-threatening diseases. I don't know how my mother would be able to cope with all that if it wasn't for Pavel Astakhov, the Ombudsman for Children's Rights. His people called local social services requesting help in this complicated situation. As a result, all the documents were ready in less than ten days," Irina said.

The grandmother is going to arrive in Poland in the nearest future. She will be able to take her grandson from the foster family. However, it is up for the court to decide whether the boy will be allowed to return to Russia or not. Poland is currently expecting a decision from a Norwegian court regarding the trusteeship over the boy. For the time being, it is considered that that boy has been temporarily delivered to a foster family.

In the meantime, Norwegian child protection agencies continue to slander Irina Bergseth. They particularly claimed that all the letters, which Irina's son Alexander had written to the Russian Consulate Office and to Norwegian authorities, were supposedly penned by Irina herself. Therefore, the agencies believe, the boy must be returned to Norway, where he will be protected from his mother's ill influence.

The boy fell unconscious when he found out that Norway was demanding his delivery. He was on a drip at hospital for several days afterwards. When in Poland, Alexander wrote a letter to the Polish authorities, seeking their assistance in his return to Russia. One is only left to hope that the court will take the opinion of the 14-year-old Russian citizen into consideration.

Alexander has started going to school in Poland. He was asked to provide a document proving his seven-year education in Norway. The latter refused to provide the paper saying that the boy had been taken away from the foster family at the end of May.

Fortunately, Polish teachers did not deprive the boy of the right for education. They arranged a special exam for Alexander, which he successfully passed. He is now an eighth-grader of a Polish school, and he studies Polish after classes.

"We try to see positive things even in this situation. My son knew three languages before all that, and now he is studying Polish and German," Irina said.

However, they still hope that the boy will finish his 8^th year of school in Russia. They have already received Russian textbooks from the Russian Consulate Office in Poland.

Svetlana Smetanina

Pravda.Ru

Read the original in Russian