It appears that either Russian media really, really wants to repeat a myth that actually has been recently debunked by Finnish officials (by our Minister of Basic Services, for example) or that Russian authorities are putting on pressure on both them and Finland for some reason. Bäckman has recently defended his claims that he has a right of free speech and to say whatever he wants and that he merely passes along information what he receives, but his credibility in Finland is somewhat in doubt and our Minister of Foreign Affairs has publicly expressed disapproval of him.Helsingin Sanomat wrote:Finnish child welfare vs. Russian media misinformation (with some Finnish assistance)
By Jussi Konttinen
I received a message from Moscow from a Russian friend.
"On the news they showed a case from Finland. In your country a child can be taken into foster care if someone claims that the child has been smacked on the bottom. That is inconceivable", wrote my friend, the godmother of my youngest child and the mother of my godson.
"Or don’t they tell the whole truth on television?" she added.
What could I possibly say to that?
Russian media this week have been extensively quoting an organisation called "Russian Mothers", who have been assisted by a Finnish man, Johan Bäckman.
The organisation has been giving out statistics according to which 35 Russian families this year have been in touch with the group after "Finnish social services have violently taken a biological child away from them". The organisation says that a total of 49 children of these families have been taken into foster care.
The news of the "49 Russian children taken into foster care this year" has been published by Russia’s leading news agency Interfax. The statistic has been repeated throughout the Russian media, and was also quoted in the news of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).
The organisation’s press release contains the names and contact information of these 35 Russian parents. I called three of the mothers.
The famous businesswoman Larisa Lisytsina is mentioned on the list along with one child.
"Who has put me on such a list?" Listytsina asks on the telephone. "My children are nearly adults. I have never had any dealings with child welfare officials."
In the case of Tatjana Kuusisto, the names of her two daughters are included.
"Of course my daughters have never been taken into foster care. I take a very positive view of child protection", Kuusisto says.
"I can’t understand why Russian journalists have been calling me all week asking me about my children."
The third woman on the list actually had dealings with child protective services.
"My mother filed a child protection report about my children."
But the children were not taken into foster care. Instead, the woman spent six months with them in a shelter, and this happened in 2003 – not this year.
Although Russian journalists also called people on the list, no effort was made to correct the erroneous information. Interfax did not want to comment on its news to Helsingin Sanomat.
The Russian Mothers organisation has also published the name of the social worker who made the decision on foster care in Vantaa, and that of the teacher who filed the child protection report.
An estimated 654,000 Russian children live without their parents. Each year more than 2,000 children or young people in Russia fall victim to homicide. More than 2,000 suicides are committed by minors in Russia each year.
Within one week the following events have taken place in Russia:
On the Chukchi Peninsula a mother gave her three-month-old daughter alcohol to drink, and the girl died. In the Novosibirsk area a stepfather killed a girl who was a year and a half old, who refused to eat porridge. Also in the Novosibirsk region a mother killed her four-year-old son by striking him 13 times with an axe.
Instead of travelling to Novosibirsk to find out why the children were not taken into foster care in good time, Pavel Astakhov, the Russian President’s Ombudsman for Children, focused on why children are taken into foster care in Finland.
One of Bäckman's stunning claims actually seems to be true in certain cases. He has said that mothers are told not to speak their own language with their children during supervised visits.
Eija Kuokka, head of basic care services in Kokemäki, says that this kind of procedure is possible in certain custody dispute cases, if a supervisor must understand what is spoken at a visit, and no interpreter is available. She says that usually an interpreter is present.
"The language and culture of children who have been placed outside the home need to be taken into consideration", says programme director Hanna Heinonen of the Central Union for Child Welfare.
Child welfare issues will undoubtedly come up when President Sauli Niinistö meets with Vladimir Putin in Salekhard this month. Discussions will be held on the basis of the abovementioned statistics and other information.
The discussion would be easier if Finland had not set a trap for itself in 2003 by agreeing to the possibility of dual Finnish-Russian citizenship. Both of the mothers who have been out in public are citizens of both Finland and Russia. In 2009 there were already 13,000 Finnish-Russian dual citizens.
Russia has said that it will protect its citizens all over the world. It has generously distributed passports among residents of Estonia, as well as the residents of the Crimea in Ukraine and South Ossetia in Georgia. Immigrants to Russia are not entitled to dual citizenship.
Most of the Russians moving to Finland want to live here according to Finnish, and not Russian law.
When there are problems, the Kremlin is acceptable as a court of sorts. People who are in trouble are always politically useful.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.10.2012
I'd really, really like to know what is going on in Russia and is this just another test to see how Finland responds to pressure. Kremlin has never forgiven Finland for its independence, it seems, and wants to mess around as much as they can.
