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Russia’s children rights ombudsman: Another Russian teen taken from his family in Finland

Circumstances of the incident are now being clarified

Pavel Astakhov Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

Pavel Astakhov

© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Another Russian teen has been taken from his family in Finland, Russia’s children rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov wrote on his Instagram page.

Astakhov said he is now trying to clarify the circumstances of the incident.

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"This time a 16-year-old teenager Ivan was taken from his family and immediately placed in an orphanage 200 km away from his parental home. We are trying to find out all the circumstances of the incident, which occurred on January 29 in Finland. We will certainly assist our compatriot. The boy has a dual citizenship and for us he is also a Russian citizen," the politician wrote.

On November 27, 2015, the Finnish authorities took away the son of Veronica Stopkina and her Finnish husband. The boy was placed in an orphanage a few days after he had said in school that he was punished at home.

Cases when children are taken away from their families are quite frequent in Finland. Local social services say that it is done for the good of those children and after all the circumstances are clarified they try to return them to their families.

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