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Russian Foreign Ministry exhausting measures to free underage Russian girl in Mexico

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova promised to share new information with the media as soon as it becomes available

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. Russian diplomats are doing everything in their power to free Kristina Romanova, an underage Russian citizen being held under questionable circumstances in Mexico, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has assured.

"Our embassy, our diplomats in Mexico are doing everything necessary, everything possible, in fact, they are doing everything together with the central apparatus of the ministry, with the Commissioner for Children's Rights under the Russian President, Maria Lvova-Belova, and the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, Anna Kuznetsova, to assist the underage Russian citizen in this situation," the diplomat said. Zakharova promised to share new information with the media as soon as it becomes available.

As the ministry told TASS earlier, the Russian minor Kristina Romanova has been held against her will in a Mexican social welfare institution since October 2023. She was taken by local child protective services after a family conflict, but no official charges have been filed against her mother since that time. Currently, the girl is in a specialized shelter of the Mexican Attorney General's Office. Local authorities say that they are keeping her in practically complete isolation from the outside world as a protective measure.

The Russian embassy emphasized that the continued detention of a person who is not under arrest or convicted of anything in an institution is illegal. Diplomats are seeking the girl's return to her homeland in accordance with her personal written request. In 2025, consular workers managed to hold several meetings with Romanova, but after August of that year, the Mexican side flatly refused to provide access to the child, ignoring appeals addressed to the country's Foreign Ministry and Attorney General's Office.

On April 16, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Mexican Ambassador to Moscow Eduardo Villegas Megias and expressed "strong concern regarding the Mexican authorities' inaction in resolving the situation involving Russian minor Kristina Vladimirovna Romanova." The Russian side "has issued a firm demand for immediate consular access to the minor."

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