Head of Russian political party adopts girl kidnapped from Ukraine and changes her name

Sergey Mironov, Chairperson of A Just Russia political party, has adopted a 10-month-old girl kidnapped in 2022 from the occupied Kherson Oblast and changed her name.

Source: Vazhnye Istorii, a Russian media outlet

Details: At the end of August 2022, the fifth wife of Mironov, Inna Varlamova, and his deputy, Yana Lantratova, arrived in the occupied Kherson Oblast.

The women left with 10-month-old Marharyta Prokopenko and two-year-old Ilia Vashchenko from the Kherson Children's Home.

Documents available to the media read that in December 2022, Mironov and Varlamova adopted Marharyta and changed her data. Now, the girl's name is Marina Sergeevna Mironova.

The child didn't just get a new name and new parents. Her place of birth was also altered; instead of Ukraine's Kherson, it is now Podolsk, near Moscow.

A source familiar with the situation reported that Marharyta's biological mother was deprived of parental rights, and her father died, but she has other relatives. The fate of the boy is still unknown. The media found that only a year after his deportation, in September 2023, he received a new birth certificate. It appears that the boy is in Moscow Oblast.

Inna Varlamova (in the centre), Yana Lantratova (to her right) and Tetiana Zavalska (left) appointed as "the head" of Kherson Children's Home in Kherson Oblast appointed after Russian occupation

PHOTO: YANA MANTRATOVA'S TELEGRAM CHANNEL

Reportedly, the case of Marharyta is the first documented case of the adoption of a Ukrainian child by a Russian politician of this rank.

Lawyers interviewed by journalists say that this can be qualified as a war crime and is considered genocide from international law's perspective.

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