One of Vladimir Putin’s top political allies adopted a baby girl he snatched from occupied Ukraine, it has been claimed.
Sergey Mironov, 70, is leader of the Fair Russia party and a staunch supporter of the war.
The politician was accused of a war crime after he and his fifth wife allegedly took the 10-month-old from a Ukrainian children’s home last year.
Records show her name was changed from Margarita Prokopenko to Marina Sergeevna Mironova, while her Ukrainian citizenship was torn up and replaced with Russian.
Her place of birth was changed from Kherson in Ukraine to Podolsk, near Moscow, and a new Russian birth certificate was issued.
Lawyers say his actions may amount to a war crime and could be considered genocide, according to independent Russian outlet Important Stories which revealed the scandal.
The politician’s wife Inna Varlamova, 55, travelled to occupied Ukraine in August 2022, along with a party aide Yana Lantratova.
They took the girl Marina after being given ‘power of attorney’ by an occupation official in the invaded region, the sinister report states.
The could also took to Moscow a two-year-old boy Ilya Vashchenko, whose fate is now unknown.
Both children were from an orphanage in Kherson, but were staying in a local hospital at the time.
The doctor was allegedly put under intense pressure to release the children to be taken to Moscow.
Once in Russia, a court decision was made to permit Mironov and Varlamova – a longtime employee in the Russian parliament – to adopt the girl.
This was done, and the child’s personal biography was changed under Russian law.
A source familiar with the abduction of Margarita and Ilya told Important Stories that the girl’s father had died and her mother had been deprived of her parental rights by a court.
However, she reportedly had other Ukrainian relatives who could have raised her.
Lawyer Maria Chashchilova said the ‘forcible transfer of children from one human group to another’ is ‘considered genocide’.
She said: ‘These children often have relatives or guardians in Ukraine who have lost contact with them, and in the case of children from orphanages, the guardians are officials of these institutions.
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‘According to international law, the parties to the conflict must provide relatives and guardians with information about the missing and facilitate their search.’
Ukraine has imposed sanctions against Mironov and four-times married Varlamova.
Ostensibly Mironov heads an opposition party in Ukraine.
But his loyalty and obedience to Putin has been known since he stood against the dictator in a presidential election in 2004.
He said at the time, indicating he was a sham candidate: ‘We all want Vladimir Putin to be the next president.’
In Soviet times, he served in the USSR’s airborne troops and later worked as a geophysicist, before entering politics.
Putin and his children’s ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova have been indicted by the International Criminal Court as war criminals over the illegal human trafficking of young people from Ukraine to Russia.
Mironov issued a rambling anti-Western statement which fell short of a full denial.
He said: ‘I see no point in reacting to yet more fake hysteria unleashed by the Ukrainian special services and their Western curators.
‘During my political activity, I have long become accustomed to such phenomena as information attacks, spreading false information about me, my children, family, and close relatives.
‘Behind all this there is one goal – gross personal discredit of everyone who takes an irreconcilable patriotic position today, everyone, starting with the President of Russia and those nearby.
‘I can say one thing: you are trying in vain. Lying may have temporary success.
‘But in the end, the truth will still win. And Russia will bring the Northern Military District to complete victory, and the goals set by the President will be fulfilled.’
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