MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. Over 80 Russian children may return home from Syria next year, Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Anna Kuznetsova informed on Tuesday.
"We wanted to organize one more trip before the New Year, however, we ended up planning the children’s return for the next year," Kuznetsova told reporters on Tuesday.
"We can return 84 children, however, the problem is that we are not allowed to separate brothers from sisters and sisters from brothers," she stated, adding that some children have all the necessary documents ready. Kuznetsova said that she is currently cooperating with representatives of other states on the issue of the children’s return from Syria. "We hope that we will be able to resolve this issue, the dialogue has been established," she concluded.
The problem of Russian children in Iraq and Syria emerged after certain Russian citizens left the country to join the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) in Iraq and Syria. They concluded marriages and fathered children, or brought their wives and children with them. Many of those children were orphaned as a result of hostilities. In 2017, terrorists started sending them to militant training camps for indoctrination and combat training, expecting that one day they would join their ranks.
The active work to return those children to Russia from conflict zones is underway upon instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A special commission was set up in 2017 by the office of the Russian children’s rights ombudsperson to help evacuate Russian children from areas of combat operations. The commission elaborated an algorithm of repatriating Russian children jointly with the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Emergencies, the Ministry of Health and the Interior Ministry.