Today, October 29th, 2020 is the first birthday of two Filipino babies, Arturo and Anika C. The third Filipino child Czandro P. also illegally detained in Russia, will be celebrating his first birthday in two days, on November 1st, 2020. All these children were born in Russia through surrogacy programs.
The children will be celebrating their first birthday in a state-owned orphanage for mentally ill children, away from their families, parents, brothers and sisters. This celebration will be without other kids and the love of their families, something natural and familiar for billions of people. No bunnies, teddy bears and balloons. This day will be spent on grey bureaucratic linen marked with blurred blue stamps. This day will be spent in a cold foreign country, in which they were born by the will of fate and which, like a steel roller of arbitrariness, lawlessness and indifference, rode through their lives, through the lives and destinies of their parents.
The children were supposed to go home in mid-January this year. Still, these plans were ruined by the “investigation” intervened in the “reproductive specialists’ case.” On January 09th, 2020, despite the presence of documents and powers of attorney, these babies were illegally seized and placed in a shelter from an apartment where they were taken care of by their parents’ proxies.
Since then, the parents have not received from the Russian Federation’s officials any information about their children, their state of health, and what is happening to them. Are they alive at all?
Since January 9, 2020 parents have been fighting to get their children back. They have been appealing to all Russian Federation’s child and human rights organizations, going to the courts, but to no avail. And nowhere do they find sympathy and help in the Russian Federation. Tired of hopelessness, the parents addressed the Constitution’s guarantor, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir V. Putin.
To no avail again. “Investigation is in progress,” they answer. “Your complaint has been submitted to the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee for consideration,” they answer. In the meantime, neither parents nor their proxies have access to the children. There is no way to see them, even in photographs. “Secrecy of the investigation,” they answer.
The parents had a DNA test at the place of residence to prepare their genetic passport. This is a kind of a very complex master key, which, nevertheless, AUTOMATICALLY fits each native genetic “door,” the unique genetic code of each child related by blood with his or her parent. This key will not open any other door since the grooves will not match. Such a test takes from two to three days. No sharp needles needed to take blood. It is enough to take a buccal smear by swiping a cotton swab along the inside of the parent and child’s cheek.
Personal presence is not required either. The tests can be done even if they are performed tens of thousands of miles apart by comparing their results. And these results will either match or not.
It is impossible to pick the genetic code artificially.
The grooves have already matched in both families in relation to all their children who managed to leave Russia for their home country. Paternity has already been confirmed for all children who are already in the Philippines.
But the Russian “investigation” officers refuse to file the test results as the materials of their fabricated “case.” They refuse to run a test on their own to compare two papers with the DNA test results (one sent from the Philippines and the domestic one). Based on the comparison results, a Russian laboratory must issue a third document. This conclusion will either confirm paternity or not.
This is the kind of paper that is missing to release unfortunate Arturo and Anika and their peer Czandro from the Russian state captivity, a hospital for children with organic mental disorders. This is the kind of paper I have been seeking from the “investigation” officers for the past ten months.
The “investigation” officers are not willing to run such a test. If they do run it, the children, whom the “law enforcement officers” consider “victims,” will have to be released from prison. If they do run it, their whole fabricated “case” will burst like a soap bubble.
Actions committed by the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee in relation to these and many other children who have become victims of the “investigation” officers are indeed a crime.
The children are indeed the victims. However, the Investigative Committee’s officers are committing this crime. Instead of protecting young children’s interests, they are ruining the children’s and their parents’ lives. They are crippling their lives, injuring their psyche, and destroying their future. This is a crime against the family, parenthood and childhood. This is a crime against the Russian Constitution, international treaties signed by the Russian Federation, a crime against humanity.
Indeed, the first year, the most crucial year in a child and parents’ life, has been irretrievably lost. One can neither return it nor live it again. There are no and will never be touching photos and videos with the first smiles and first words addressed to mom and dad, the dearest people in the world. And there will be no first steps. The Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee deprived the children and their parents of all this. The babies’ life, health, and mental development have been severely damaged. But there is still a chance to return them to everyday life by immediately freeing them from Russian captivity and returning them to their parents.
The performance of any system is not determined by whether it makes mistakes or not. Everyone makes mistakes. Errare humanum est, as the ancients said. A response to a human error determines the system’s performance. Finally, admit that you are wrong. Just acknowledge and return the children to their parents. How long can you victimize people who have believed in our country and entrusted it with the most precious thing in a person’s life, their children?
I DEMAND from the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee to show the children to their parents, to prove that they are alive and report on their state of health!
I DEMAND to carry out a genetic examination for paternity by comparing the DNA test results already at the “investigation” officers’ disposal in order to establish paternity between the parents and children living in their families in the Philippines, as well as little Arturo, Anika and Czandro, who are still in the clutches of the “investigation” officers.
I DEMAND from the Russian Federation’s General Prosecutor’s Office to fulfill its SUPERVISION functions and put an end to the lawlessness perpetrated in the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee!
Konstantin N. Svitnev,
Director of Rosjurconsulting Law Firm,
Parents’ Representative in the Russian Federation
