Russia to Ensure Full Protection of Children from New Regions Despite West’s Opposition

The theme of childhood and protecting children in the modern world is increasingly becoming an instrument of political games, which is fully illustrated by the reaction of several Western countries to Russia’s actions with respect to children from the country’s new regions. In this situation, Russia will continue every effort to protect the rights of children from Donbas and the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions and ensure their right to protection and a full-fledged childhood, representatives of the federal authorities and the Investigative Committee said at the discussion ‘The Children of Donbas: Right to Safety’, which was held as part of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum (SPILF).

CONCLUSIONS

Russia has taken the utmost care of children from Donbas who are in danger

“The approach that our country has chosen to provide for the lives of children who are being evacuated from the respective territories is consistent with the norms of the 1989 [UN] Convention on the Rights of the Child. This Convention acknowledges that a child has the right to grow up “in a family environment and in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and understanding”. Work is carried out with each child individually. [...] The possibilities of finding and returning relatives, friends, acquaintances, and so on to their families are being discussed,” Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova said.

“The evacuation took place in coordination with and at the request of the heads of the republics. When the children arrived, some of them were foster children at social institutions – there were around 2,000 of them. [...] At the time they were evacuated, our Russian citizens who were sitting in front of their TV screens, after seeing that they were taking orphans, started expressing a desire to take them in to their families. The Commissioner’s office was flooded with a flurry of calls and appeals. [...] During a conversation with the president, I told him that Russian citizens have a desire to show concern for the children. He said to place the children who are able to and are ready in families without delay,” Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the Russian President Maria Lvova-Belova said.

“Today, we are doing everything to organize the educational process. On 1 September, 1,300 schools were opened in all the new constituent entities of the Russian Federation and all the schoolchildren were provided with textbooks – truthful textbooks about history, geography, and other subjects,” Russian Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov said.

PROBLEMS:

The West is using double-talk to accuse Russia of ‘kidnapping’ children in order to make advantageous political decisions

“Above all, in Western sources and reports by individual international organizations and protective structures, we are seeing a terminological error everywhere. I think this is not a coincidence and in some cases it’s intentional. The term ‘adoption’ is being used, although it would be correct to use the word ‘guardianship’, which has a temporary nature. It’s aid and assistance on a temporary basis due to circumstances that in no way replace everything involved with searching for families and returning and connecting [children] with relatives. [...] The decision made by the pseudo-organization of the International Criminal Court with their clown warrants for the arrest of the Russian president and the commissioner for children’s rights has nothing to do with international law. This is a political move,” Zakharova said.

“As of today, we have 380 children in 19 regions of Russia. [...] For some reason, when the children were safe and surrounded by their families, the [Ukrainian Security Service] started persecuting them, the foster families received threats, their personal data was posted in the information space, and people were searching for children via social media and asking them to make videos about how difficult life is for them in Russia. So we are seeing a blatant provocation vis-à-vis children,” Lvova-Belova said.

“The International Criminal Court made a crazy decision regarding our country’s leadership and the commissioner for children’s rights, using the theme of children. […] Why are we extracting them? We are trying to save them, take care of them, and help them adapt,” Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said.

SOLUTIONS

Russia needs a patriotism-based state ideology

“This is why the most important protection of children is moral protection. Unfortunately, today Nazism exists and is sprouting up in the so-called enlightened countries thanks to powerful propaganda and informational work. Today, an information war is being unleashed against our country. And we are winning this war thanks to our teachers and our education system,” Russian Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov said.

For more, please see the Roscongress Foundation’s Information and Analytical System roscongress.org

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