Two Russian leaders found guilty in child kidnapping talk family affairs in Murmansk
Just few hours after he arrived back to Murmansk from a visit to occupied Ukrainian territories, Governor Andrei Chibis sat down with Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin's so-called Commissioner for Children's Rights. Both of them are on international sanctions lists for their involvement in abduction of Ukrainian children.
“The main thing is not to neglect children, their future and families, when difficult circumstances appear,” Governor Andrei Chibis said in this week's Forum on prevention of social orphanhood. The event took place in Murmansk and was organised in cooperation with Maria Lvova-Belova, the so-called Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of Russia. “The ways we can support families that are experiencing hardship — that is what the participants of the forum are focusing their attention on,” Lvova-Belova explained in a social media post. The two state officials' pronounced care for families and children notwithstanding, both Chibis and Lvova-Belova have a lot to answer for when it comes to abduction of children. According to the International Criminal Court, Lvova-Belova is responsible for the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia following the full-scale invasion.
Several hundred children are believed to have been forcefully moved to Russia from Ukrainian lands occupied by Russia. An international warrant has been issued for the state official. A similar warrant has been issued for Vladimir Putin. Lvova-Belova is also on the sanctions list of a number of countries, among them the EU, USA, UK and Japan. Also Andrei Chibis is sanctioned by a big number of countries.
In December 2022, the EU Council adopted a string of sanctions against the governor and a significant number of other Russians. According to the Council, Governor Chibis has been “involved in the illegal transportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and their adoption by Russian families.” His actions “violate the rights of Ukrainian children and infringe Ukrainian law and administrative order,” the EU Council decision reads. According to the Murmansk Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, more than 120 Ukrainian children have been adopted by local Russian families. The meeting between Chibis and Lvova-Belova came only few hours after the Governor had made it back to Murmansk from a trip to occupied parts of Ukraine. According to the Chibis, the trip included meetings with local authorities in the town of Primorsk.
Chibis visited a new basketball court built with money from Murmansk and laid down flowers at a local war memorial. He also met with soldiers from Murmansk region that are fighting in Ukraine. “It is a great honour for me to visit our warriors that are executing operations in the special military operation […] What our warriors and their commanders are doing is delightful,” Chibis said after the visit. Murmansk has since early 2023 been commissioned by Moscow to aid Primorsk, the occupied municipality in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region. Major sums of money have been spent on schools, infrastructure and sport facilities.
“We will help Primorsk with everything that it needs,” Chibis said during his first visit to the area in summer of 2023. Since then, the governor and his top officials have made a number of visits to the occupied land.
