This is a big narrative line from the West on Ukraine. Putin, (personally), has ‘stolen’ children from Ukraine. The EU often cites this as a major factor in ‘peace negotiations’. They do this because they feel doing so enforces their moral superiority over Russia. (Even as they are trying to steal the Russian assets). Anti-Russian propagandists like to remind their readers that “Putin is an indicted war criminal” – referring to the ICC case against Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights. (I don’t know exactly how the ICC decides which cases to pursue and which not; but until they start prosecuting some Western leaders for their war crimes for the crime of aggression, which the ICC can do, given certain limitations, [1] I don’t see that they have much credibility. Law which is not administered consistently is not credible. And; to be fair to the ICC; given the unpoliced nature of the international arena, there is simply no way the ICC could be consistent).
This narrative line is typical for the West, that is the Europeans. It enables them to maintain their sense of superiority over Russia. Most of the people who express it probably really believe it; they are not consciously doing propaganda. The narrative is broadcast into public consciousness, and many people are ‘brain-washed’ by it. Russia is indeed a terrible country – barbarians really – and we can’t give them an inch.
This story; about some kind of charity project to help children who have been returned from Russia, is illustrative of the actual reality behind this narrative line. It reproduces the key elements of the narrative: “They were Ukrainian children who had been forcibly removed from their father” + “harrowing deportation or arduous rescue” + “Ukraine’s government has identified 19,546 children who have been unlawfully deported or forcibly transferred to Russia”, and so on. However; if one reads the story carefully, without hysteria, one can see what happened. The family had no mother. She had left years before. They were living in territory which Russia has taken over and now considers part of Russia. The lone-parent father was detained by Russian authorities – we are told he did not know why. Clearly, that left his children alone. What seems to have happened is that local Russian authorities did what authorities would do the world over when the sole parent of small children is detained in custody; they swallowed the children into the state care system. We are told that they children were told they were going to be given up for adoption. Possibly. (Forced adoptions – without parental agreement happen in the UK too). From the Russian point of view; this is not “abducting children”. While Dimitry Peskov and other senior figures in Moscow no doubt understand the ambiguities resulting from their occupation of land recognised by most of the world as Ukrainian, local Russian officials, no doubt simply see themselves as implementing normal Russian policy. (It has to be said that Russian officials can be incredibly pedantic and lower level officials probably do lack sensitivity to the ambiguities of the “occupation” situation). So; from their point of view, there is nothing untoward here. Children alone in a dangerous region are removed to safety and, being without a parent, (may? – there is “no evidence” for this, be considered for adoption). The political issue here is that the territory is contested. The children are only being “taken across state borders”, (a crime), from the point of view of Ukraine, and those who support Ukraine; not from Russia’s point of view, who consider the territory on which this happened as being Russian. To say that the children are being “abducted” is to also assert Ukraine’s position in the war.
The children were returned. This is further evidence, indeed, (and there is plenty), that, when Russian authorities are presented with sufficient evidence of close family connections in Ukraine of these children, they do indeed return them. I do, however, believe that part of the story that describes this process as “arduous”. Russian bureaucracy is hard work at the best of times.
Nonetheless; this, like every other story about “abducted children” which I have read, this story, if read carefully, confirms that the narrative is propagandistic. The “abducted children” narrative depends on a cartoonist and one-sided portrayal of a complex political situation.
Notes