Russian Couple Threatened With Losing Their Children For Attending Rally Vow To Fight On

[Rogue Valley]

Russian Couple Threatened With Losing Their Children For Attending Rally Vow To Fight On

Pyotr and Yelena Khomsky say the case is aimed at "frightening us and other activists."

8/27/19
MOSCOW -- A Russian couple threatened by prosecutors with losing their three children for bringing them to a protest rally in Moscow have called their prosecution "a lawless attempt to frighten all the activists." Pyotr and Yelena Khomsky told Current Time on August 26 that the prosecutor’s office of Moscow’s Nikulinsky district had filed a request to deprive them of their parental rights because they had attended a protest rally earlier this month with their three daughters. The couple said the court will look into the request on September 2. They also said that they had never been informed about a preliminary hearing that was held in Moscow on August 22. The couple and the three girls – aged 3 months, 3 years, and 10 years -- were shown on state television channels during the August 3 rally. Pyotr Khomsky was described as "a professional provocateur" and "a bodyguard of Aleksei Navalny" -- the Russian opposition politician and vocal Kremlin critic. Khomsky told Current Time -- the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA -- that he came to the rally intentionally but did not hold any placards or posters and did not chant any slogans. The couple said the prosecutors' request was aimed at "frightening us and other activists" and vowed to fight to keep their children.

"We will not allow them to do that. They will sputter in their own anger and lawlessness. We will not give them [our children.] They are not almighty as they think they are," Pyotr Khomsky said. He also expressed regret that many people in Russia don't do enough to defend their rights. "People usually try to stay calm, hoping that the authorities will not bother them, if they stay unnoticed. But [the authorities] will [bother them]. First, they will 'eat up' those who are more active, and then, because they will need more 'food,' they will start dealing with those who sat calm. And in the end, they will start eating each other," Khomsky said. The case follows a similar move on August 6, in which the Moscow city prosecutor's office requested that Dmitry and Olga Prokazov have their parental rights removed for bringing their 1-year-old son to an unsanctioned rally in front of the Moscow mayor's office on July 27. That move sparked harsh criticism among ordinary Muscovites and human rights organizations across Russia.

Another method the Putin regime is using to discourage political activism within Russia.

This case sends a message to other current and would-be activists ... stay home, or you may be putting your children at risk of being kidnapped by the state.

I greatly admire the courage and conviction of these brave people.

 

[Rogue Valley]

UPDATE.....

Russia protests: Moscow couples can keep children - court

Olga and Dmitry Prokazov.

9/2/19
Courts in Russia have rejected prosecutors' request to strip two couples of parental rights after they took their children to protest rallies. Instead, Dmitry and Olga Prokazov, and Petr and Elena Khomskikh were warned. The prosecutors argued that the two couples had endangered their children's life by bringing them to recent protests in the capital Moscow. The move had caused outrage in Russia, where a number of people face jail terms for taking part in the rallies. The rallies - some of them unauthorized - have been held regularly since July against the exclusion of most opposition candidates in Moscow's Duma (city parliament) elections scheduled for 8 September. On Monday, the verdicts were issued by Moscow courts in what were two separate cases. Both the Khomskikh and the Prokazov couples received a formal warning. The courts also said they may still lose custody of their children if they went anywhere near opposition protests. Defence lawyers for each of the two families said they would appeal against the rulings.

In the high-profile Prokazov case, the prosecutors had argued that during an unauthorised rally on 27 July "the parents handed their young child, who was in a helpless state due to his age, to a third person thus endangering the boy's health and life". "And so by exploiting the child, the parents abused their parental rights to the detriment of their son's interests," the prosecutors said in a statement last month. They also said the child's father had temporary residence in Moscow and therefore did not have a vote in the elections. Dmitry and Olga Prokazov said they had simply been out for a walk when they came upon the protesters. They said they had seen their friend Sergey Fomin among a group of protesters and suggested that he leave with them. He agreed and at some point Dmitry gave Sergey the baby to hold. He described Sergey as his best friend, and said he was his wife's cousin and godfather to his eldest son. The Khomskikh case has not received such public attention, and the details emerged much later. The prosecutors argued that during a protest on 3 August the lives of their two young daughters had been endangered because they were "in close proximity to a large number of aggressively-minded demonstrators".

This was always only about the Putin regime using children as cudgels against the parents for the purpose of intimidation.