Russia regrets a Finnish court’s refusal to restore a Russian mother’s custody rights over her son and prosecute her former husband, a Finnish national, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
The court turned down Rimma Salonen’s appeal several days ago and prior to that, in mid-January, she was denied temporary custody of her 7-year-old son, Anton.
Spokesman Alexei Sazonov said Russia was ready to keep giving Rimma Salonen all the aid and support she needed, stressing that the custody case should be considered “within the bounds of the law and by taking into account the child’s rights and interests.”
Anton has been at the center of a Russian-Finnish child custody dispute since his mother took him to Russia in March 2008. In 2009, Paavo Salonen, 66, took him from Russia to Finland with the help of a Finnish diplomat.
The child’s father was charged in Russia in 2009 with illegally taking Anton, who has both Finnish and Russian citizenship, to Finland.
His mother was given an 18-month suspended sentence in Finland for illegally taking Anton to Russia in 2008.
Custody rights were granted to the boy’s Finnish father. The court allowed the Russian mother to see her son only twice a month in the presence of police and social workers.
MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti)