Russia moves to take baby away from opposition couple over protest

Russian prosecutors on Tuesday said they had asked a court to strip an opposition-minded couple of their parental rights over their one-year-old son after they took him to an unauthorized anti-Kremlin protest in Moscow last month. The protest, on July 27, was one of a series of demonstrations against the exclusion of opposition candidates from a Moscow election next month. Police forcibly dispersed the protest and detained over 1,000 people.

Moscow prosecutors accused the couple in a statement of abusing their responsibilities by having handed their baby over to a third person at the demonstration which it said the pair had to attend illegally. The couple had put the baby's health and life at risk in the process, prosecutors said and abused their parental rights.

The statement did not name the parents or the third person it said they had handed the baby to, but said prosecutors had asked a court to strip a couple of their parental rights. Prosecutors said they were also investigating the illegal participation of other adults with small children or minors in the same protest and another on Aug. 3.

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