Russian mother's children seized in Norway on news about contemplated divorce - rights group
MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) - Rights campaigners have reported a fresh instance of a child being taken from a Russian mother in Norway.
"Eleven year-old son Erik and 13 year-old daughter Maria have been seized from Russian mother Yelena Kuznetsova in the village of Sogndal in Norway. Both children and their mother have Russian citizenship," Irina Bergset, coordinator of the Russian Mothers international movement for the defense of parents' rights, told Interfax.
Kuznetsova has lived and worked in Norway for the past 15 years. Her Norwegian husband's relatives reported that she was not coping with her parental duties to child welfare services after they learned that the Russian woman was planning a divorce.
The children were placed under the care of the woman's Norwegian sister-in-law, who receives 25,000 Norwegian kroner (125,000 rubles) a month for each child," Bergset said.
She also said that Kuznetsova was allowed to see her children eight times a year in the presence of social workers.
Kuznetsova turned to the Russian embassy in Oslo and to Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov, requesting that her children be entered on the list of victims of Norwegian social services.
Astakhov earlier wrote on Twitter, citing the Russian embassy in Oslo, that 19 Russian children have been seized in this way.
Russian Mothers is an international public organization, formed in 2011. The movement unites Russian families in 32 countries whose children have been taken from them.
