Very good posting. I just love it. Good luck man with your work.

Finland has reasons to hate Russia and vice versa. They had a war, a dispute about Russian territory that "should be Finnish", etc. So the boy's case will not be treated according to the boy's well being but each will claim the boy as its because it has become a matter of "national pride". Russia will likely put some missiles targeting Finland and Finland will call NATO to put missiles in Finland targeting Russia. It is said, all men are boys. We can't believe anybody, Russia will say the father is a beast and the mother is a saint and Finland will say exactly the opposite. We will learn the truth about the boy when he is adult and can go where he likes... What we know for sure is that it was a KIDNAP. At least, Finland has very good schools...

In all those stupid comments, why did anyone ask: 1) How live the farher ? Is-he able to rise his child correctly ? 3) How live the mother ? Is-she able to rise her child correctly ? 4) Has a court of justice (finn or russian) declared any of the parents unfit to take care of their son ? 5) Since this little boy is older than Liza; did any of those so well intentioned adults has asked him: with whom does he prefer to live. 6) In that case which involve two neighbouring states; will it not be logical to facilitate such sad situations, resulting in so many childs'misery. It seems to me that in many ereas in Europe, doing something nasty to embarrass Russia is rewarding and insure notoriety. Sorry Future Generations ! Sincerely. Jean-Claude Meslin

Russia is being abused by Russian criminals who hide behind patriotism . Exposing criminals is a duty of Russian citizens or they will destroy our country May 2002 Strict new Immigration law was passed by President Vladimeir Putin, No more easy Russian passports, No more Duel citizenship, No more any one welcomed in to Russia unless they are very good for Russia, It was necessary , and it was good, Due to vast immigration of Cacus people , from former Soviet Union, in to Russia the law was to protect and control Russian intrests, So many immigrants were coming to Russia , our population was at risk, The new Registration and Immigration Laws would protect Russia, WRONG. Russian Migration Officials became powerfull over night, The Migration officials no longer needed to take each case to court for court approval, Migration officials could make decisions on each case by themtselves, as individuals, This fact has made them target of many criminal groups with money, A culture of using migrant workers on building sites ,wih out paying them, especially in Siberian Region developed, The gang master would place the migrant workers on building sites and take their passport away and give them a copy. Thousands of workers involved, and vast sums of money is paid to gang masters by the building owners. The Migration police does not trouble such migrants, No registration is given as the migrants would have to live in a hotel to get such registration, The migrants live and work on site , never venture out, The migrant is given freedom to live on site , and paid enogh to eat, but never paid in full, but always promissed ,the migrant is not aware of intensions, and after a year or so, when worker demands for his wages, the Migration men come, arrest and deport the migrant as illegal and with no registration. The unpaid wages is split between gang masters and the Migration official , the money is in millions of Rubbles, as thousands of workers are used. Courts would approve deporting any person with no registration and money . The prosecuters were Migration officials, All respected police force of Russian Federation, The worker has no case to ask for his wages, as he is illegaly in the country. The Migration official soon has power to do it by itself as hundreds of thousands of cases would jam the courts, This practic made the Migration Official the GOD in Russia, the Migration can even ignor a court order later , as they gained more confidence , all based on May 2002 Russian Law, Now abused.. This is not the end, The case that is to be brought to attention of Russian authority exposes a much darker side of the Migration official practice, one that will force the world to take note, The Migration Officials in Siberia are involved with pedophile gangs who either take children out of Russia or bring them in for pedophile tourists. In Russia , a pedophile and child abuser , if captured, will get 3 years in prison maximum. If one has a few hundred Dollar , One never gets prosecuted. Many pedophiles come to Russia as our country is not a full Treaty to the Haig Convention, crimes commited by Russians against non Russians , or non Russians in Russia ,can not be challenged outside Russia, Even Interpole and European courts have no powers in Russia, No FBI, or Scotland Yard, or CIA can do anything if a Russian commits a crime and goes Russia or, he commits it in Russia, Our constitution protects Russian citizens and we do not hand over any one , The cases involved are so damaging to Russia that it will result in new laws in Russia, Russian Moscow is most likely not yet aware of the extent of the crimes commited by the Migration officials, The Migration Officilas are given powers, and they are abusing the power, This is very damaging to Russia, If you think this recent cases are bad, Then , you will be shocked by the exposures in near future,

Something had to be done, says diplomat who brought abducted boy back to Finland Simo Pietiläinen tells Helsingin Sanomat of dramatic escape; Russia sends diplomatic note over incident Somethin g had to be done, says diplomat who brought abducted boy back to Finland Something had to be done, says diplomat who brought abducted boy back to Finland print this “No, there was no way they could have got back into Finland by legal means. I do not regret my actions.” Simo Pietiläinen, who brought five-year-old Anton Salonen and his father Paavo Salonen back from Russia in secret in the back of his car, stands behind what he did. The man sitting in a Helsinki hotel meeting room is a Finnish civil servant. Officially he is still an expert adviser on legal matters attached to the Finnish Consulate-General in St. Petersburg. Custody disputes are part of his brief. Even if he is still officially on staff, there is apparently no going back to St. Petersburg for Pietiläinen. This has been made clear by both the Finnish and Russian authorities. Things began to roll forwards just over two weeks ago. A complicated custody dispute had been festering for some time. The [Russian] mother in the case had acquired Russian citizenship for her son Anton using false documents. Two courts in Russia had quashed the decision and ordered that the citizenship papers be rescinded. Then Pietiläinen heard some shocking news from Moscow. An immigration official in Nizhny Novgorod had initially declared the boy’s citizenship application invalid, but had then abruptly reversed the decision after a verbal request from the mother. “At that point I realised that the father and son were never going to get out of Russia and back to Finland by any legal means. Junior officials are not adhering to the decision handed down by the Russian courts.” The Finnish father had come to Russia earlier in the spring to collect his child, a Finnish citizen. He traced the boy and in April he unilaterally carried out the terms of an earlier Tampere District Court ruling awarding custody to the father. In 2008 the mother had taken the child to Russia without the father’s consent and using forged documents. In spite of the Finnish court ruling and subsequent Russian court decisions, the father had been unable to get the child back to Finland. Having taken the child, Paavo Salonen found himself in an awkward bind, as the boy’s mother had filed an official complaint with the Russian police. Even though the prosecutor in Nizhny Novgorod ruled that the father had done nothing in violation of Russian criminal law, he was still not permitted to leave the country. By the first week of May, Paavo and Anton Salonen had already been on the Consulate-General’ s premises for three weeks, day in day out. The father’s tourist visa was running out, and the Russian officials would not grant him an extension. And now things were further compounded by the immigration official’s about-turn on the boy’s Russian citizenship, in direct opposition to a Russian court ruling. The situation was intolerable. Paavo Salonen could not leave the country and yet he could not remain there legally without a valid visa. On Thursday May 7th, Paavo Salonen and Simo Pietiläinen discussed a way out of the impasse. The idea of smuggling the child out of Russia began to take shape. "Would I be guilty of a more serious offence by doing what I did, or in the circumstances, by doing nothing, and ensuring that two Finnish citizens are unable to get home?” says Pietiläinen of the thoughts that went through his head at the time. The getaway trip began on the Friday evening. Paavo and Anton Salonen sat in the back seat of Pietiläinen’s dark-blue Audi station wagon. The car was afforded some protection by carrying red Russian diplomatic licence-plates. “I bought some chocolate and some soft drinks for the child, and off we went.” Around ten kilometres before the border, the passengers clambered into the rear of the station wagon, conceunderneath the pull-out blind. “The boy was so incredibly plucky and cheerful the whole time it really was no trouble.” At the crossing between Russia and Finland the pressure built up. “We weren’t scared exactly, but definitely tense. I think that describes it.” The Russian border officials were somewhat preoccupied, in that they were preparing for the celebrations of the following day’s anniversary of Victory Day (May 9th, 1945). Shortly after passing through the Vaalimaa checkpoints, Anton and Paavo crawled out from their hiding place. From Hamina they travelled onward in another car. The journey from St. Petersburg took around two and a half hours altogether. Pietiläinen returned immediately to Russia, heading back to St. Petersburg the same Friday evening. A call came in from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on the following Sunday, May 10th. “I was in St. Petersburg, washing the car. I was instructed to report in Helsinki that evening.” “It was an OK meeting, but there were so many people present that I’d rather not say any more about it”, observes Simo Pietiläinen. Even though the incident stemmed from Pietiläinen’s own choice of course of action, in his view it contains the seed of a profound question about the relations between the two countries. “It cannot be that an individual civil servant or diplomat handles these matters on the basis of his or her personal conscience. There have to be some reliable ground-rules. My way of doing things cannot be the normal way of carrying on. I can see that perfectly well.” Pietiläinen’s fixed-term contract will be up for consideration roughly a year from now. "The Foreign Ministry will get my things brouught out of there [Russia]. I have not been dismissed. That’s about it.”, says Pietiläinen in describing his present position. More on this subject: Russia sends diplomatic note over Anton Salonen incident Anton Salonen's mother does not dare to return to Finland Previousl y in HS International Edition: Child abduction case prompts ministerial-level altercation between Finland and Russia (18.5.2009)

Why has Russian Federation NOT signed the international agreement on child kidnapping? I know it hasn't but WHY? What is the reason for not participating?

Such subjective views on everything is what the tabloids thrive on. Everyone really should find out the facts from both sides and not just believe whatever the papers say in either country. Not all finns hate russians and I doubt all russians hate finns either. Emotional thing like this will, for a lot of people, bring up all sorts of repressed feelings. Still, I'd wish for everyone not lash out at each other like this.

Russia has low birth rate and high mortality rate amongst it population. Russia has a declining population, and child mortality rate is over 70%. thus the reports are forbidden for publication. Of the children born and live to be adults, the regular use of drugs and alcohal renders most males in Russia unable to father children. Russia has passed a hiden law allowing any child to be taken in to Russia and be made in to Russian citizen, even if non of the parents are Russian. Russian law states a child born to a Rusian woman, anywhere in the world is a Russian citizen at point of birth. Such a child can be taken to Russia with no travel documents as long as the mother has his apostlised birth certificate, The child becomes Russian citizen and taking such child out is considerd kidnapping . Russia used LAW to commit crime. LAW in Russia is CRIME, Russia law = Law of Criminals IF YOU ARE A VICTIME OF RUSSIAN LAW, BE AWARE THESE SITS ARE MONITORD BY THE RUSSIAN SO CALLED LAW .

Are you sure? hate is a strong expression.. There is a few things which I hate. Russia is not one of them

It looks like all comments are from Finnish people. People should not forget that Paavo is not what he tells. he treated his ex-wife poorly, he didn't respect her because of her original nationality and religion. He actually didn't care about his son until he heard that he was taken in Russia. This man kidnapped Anton from his mother using force and assistance and now he is in all junk magazines telling that he saved Anton from starvation and death. What kind of man will do this? I say that his stories (most of them are made up) make Finnish people hate Russians even more. He knows that so called Finland vs. Russia news are quite sensations in Finland in which people have always hated Russians. This is not officially proved but it is like that, just like Finnish people have always hated Russian orthodox. It's not quite easy to live in that country for a Russian. Another good example is hockey. Russia won 2009 hockey championship and there were only negative opinions about that in forums. What does this all tell about Finnish people? It tells that Finnish hate all what concerns Russia except if Russia falls...

Some illegal acts were taken.. I agree. That's not uncommon in this kind of Mother-child-father cases.. We'll see what happens next :)

From the process point of view the case is clear. Mother kidnapped the boy, and father took him back despite of unwillingness. So the problem is not leagal but instead mental. Anton is now at home, case is closed. Isak

In today's Finnish media it is revealed that Russian Embassy in Helsinki helped the mother to escape with the kidnapped child by allowing a visa for the child with a faked signature from the father. The visa should never have been admitted without the father's approval. So, the first two illegal actions in this case were: 1) the biological mother kidnapped the child and 2) Russian embassy workers who participated in the faked visa approval.

I'm sure the case of the outdated visa will be handled properly and justice will be served (fines will be payed). But no other illegalities have occured, so that will be the final outcome of this case. The father travelled to a friendly neighbour country, with the help from local officials he found his son who had been kidnapped and travelled back with him. The prosecution against the woman who had illegaly kidnapped this boy will definately be set. I trust that Russian legal system will help the Finnish authorities in this process. The same woman also abandoned her other child in Finland when kidnapping this young one. I'm not sure what kind of a mother abandons her own child in an unfamiliar country. It is possible that this case will also be investigated.

I am glad at least some people can at least undertsand the illegality. The law is straightforward - to cross the Russian Federation Border without hinderance, you need a valid registered visa, plus notarised paperwork showing that the individual crossing has the pre-requisit sole rights for the child. You breach this and you are acting illegaly. Its not a difficult concept to understand. States should not act illegaly, and certainly shouldn't be proud of it. The Russian courts argument, is a silly one, on one hand it is argued that the Russian courts acted properly in rescinding the nationality, on the other they are not competent to decide on nationality. No lets sum up the real position of Finland, every thing that we can politically justify, is allowed, regardless of its illegality. The standard EU jungle mantra.Keep singing it, you are believing the hymn.

Count Cash, the only possible "illegality" may have been the father's outdated visa. As the father and the only legitimate caretaker he can travel where ever and when ever he wants to. The biological mother has no legal rights to oppose this. When father found his son, he simply traveled away with him. Travelling is not illegal in Russia, is it? Seeking justice from courts in Russia is a kind of bizarre sense of humor. Justice is for sale in Russian courts and that is why the fathers all cases in Russia were first won, the delayed, then cancelled, then won again, then delayedm then cancelled. Russian legal system is prone to corruption at every level and especially for foreigners the prices are way too high for ordinary people. All bureaucrats, all police officers, all customs officers, all legal officials can be bought.