The row between Russia and Finland around four children of Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya, taken away by Finnish social services, continues. On Tuesday, the Finnish side allowed the mother to see her newborn only once a month. Meanwhile, a new scandal is brewing – children have been taken away from another Russian mother – Albina Kasatkina.
The row around the children of Russian citizen Anastasia Zavgorodnaya taken away by the Finnish social service is gaining momentum. The Finnish side has refused to meet with Russian diplomats to settle the conflict. But they have let the mother see once a month her newborn child, who does not even have a name and documents yet, the Moskovsky Komsmolets newspaper writes. The Finnish authorities seem to be unaware of the fact that breast milk is the first necessity for a ten-days-old baby. Finnish human rights activist Johan Beckman said “The authorities have decided to isolate the child from the mother. She is not allowed to breastfeed the child. She has the right to meet with her other three children also only once a month and they are also not allowed to speak Russian. It is evident that they are doing this to make the children forget their parents and the language as soon as possible”.
One more Russian national, Albina Kasatkina, says her two children were taken away by Finnish social services. “The wife of my former husband called the social service and said that I was allegedly strapping the children,” Albina told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily. “But I don’t do that. They took away my son and daughter searching for traces of beatings. But they found nothing, only a small bruise on the arm of Vivian. The girl even does not know where she got it,” she said. All this happened back on September 12, but it has dawned upon Albina to make it public only now. “All these days I simply did not know what to do, I hoped it was a mistake and they would return the children. I was trying to find a lawyer. I did not think at all that it is a common practice to take children away from Russian parents in Finland. I heard in passing that such things do happen to somebody, but I never thought it would happen to me,” Albina said.