Paavo SalonenAnton is a five-year-old kid who disappeared from his home in the beginning of April 2008. From the beginning his dad suspected that Anton’s mom, who is Estonian-Russian, took him and transported Anton to Russia. Two months later Anton’s dad found his son from Nizhny Novgorod and was hopeful that he would get Anton back to Finland. However, it took over 12 months before Anton’s dad Paavo Salonen finally got him back.
Probably you are wondering what this has to do with politics? Before Thursday 14th of May 2009 it created some arguments between Russia and Finland but from the point of view of politics yesterday the case raised to a new spheres.
In this morning newspapers like Helsingin Sanomat, Iltalehti and Iltasanomat released news about Anton’s transport back to Finland. First the information was that Anton’s dad travelled over the Russian border with Anton but few hours later the newspapers got new information and that changed the nature of the case for good; It wasn’t Paavo Salonen who travelled over the boarder with Anton, it was a employee of Finland’s headconsulate in St.Petersburg.
Anton SalonenThis information started a political game with this case. Alexander Stubb, The Foreign Minister of Finland, announced the following thing for Helsingin Sanomat: ”The Finnish dad had a right to retrieve his son back from Russia.” Few hours later the Foreign Ministry of Finland confirmed to Iltalehti that an employee of Finland’s head consulate in St.Petersburg brought Anton to Finland. Russia had its own opinion about this case and Sergei Lavrov, the Prime Minister of Russia, discussed with Stubb yesterday on a phone. Lavrov said that the action of the employee of Finland’s head consulate was against Russian law and this makes him/her a criminal in Russia.
Alexander StubbAlso webpage RussiaToday published news about the conclusion of the case;
”Moscow has filed a formal complaint to Helsinki after Finland's consulate general in St. Petersburg helped a Finnish citizen take his son out of Russia against both the will of his Russian mother and the law. The Finnish Embassy in Russia has confirmed that the incident took place.”
So the heat is still on with this thing but probably Anton will stay in Finland, since his mother is warranted in EU countries on child kidnapping. During this day there has been a lot of talk in Finland that did the Finnish Embassy the right decision with this episode. My opinion is that they absolutely made the right decision, since we are talking about kidnapping and because Russia haven’t accepted the Haag treaty against child kidnapping this was the only choice. Finland also announced that the employee would be transferred to other tasks, since it is impossible to continue his/her employment contract after this episode. Like I said the heat is still on and it’s interesting to see if this case will create discussion among candidates of the European Parliament, since it's only two and a half weeks before election date.
Posts
Is it right that 5y-old child was taken away from his mother?
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not right to separate him from his mother, but its not right to take him away from his father as well. The mother turned this situation into a crime, and unfortunately the consequences reflects on her son.
ReplyDeleteHere is a English link I found, where I think person under the "Igor Larionov" name has put the facts well together: http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-05-15/Russia_lashes_out_at_Finland_over_kidnapping/forum
I am shocked by the people commenting http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/1135245975512
ReplyDeleteThey are happy that the kid was abducted by his father just because he is a Finn.
Who cares about the court decision in Finland that Paavo is the single caretaker? The action took place in Russia, it is a different country.
What would you think if an Arabic man would come to Finland to take his son from a Finnish mother back to his country because they have such traditions? No offense to Arabs, just an abstract example.
It is pity that the parents could not agree and the mother did not do the best, but it is sick when Finnish officials help to kidnap a child.
I think the word "abduct" is not a right word in this context. The mother abducted Anton, not Paavo.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm really wondering what you mean by saying "Who cares about the court decision in Finland that Paavo is the single caretaker? The action took place in Russia, it is a different country."
Russia is maybe a different country but if they would ratify The Hague Treaty against Child Kidnapping the mother would be a criminal in Russia like she is in all EU-countries.
So there wouldn't be any controversy in this case if Russia would have same rules with the rest of the world.
Your comparsion about Arabic man seems a little bit farfetched for me.
And what comes to the Finnish official he made the decision alone and they didn't kidnap the child... He was with his dad. Paavo also told to Russian police that he is planning to take Anton back to Finland and he got their approval for that.
What comes to the blog link you gave, unfortunately there is room for all kind of inappropriate comments.
Hopefully media will leave little Anton alone and the situation will calm down, so that he can start a balanced life.
It certainly will be interesting to see how far Russia is willing to stretch this. Will this be another "Bronze Soldier" case?
ReplyDelete