The State Duma hosted a meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on Investigating the Kiev Regime’s Crimes Against Minors.
The third meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on Investigating the Kiev Regime’s Crimes Against Minors was held by the co-chairs of the Commission, First Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Federal Structure, Regional Policy, Local Government and Northern Affairs Galina Karelova and Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Anna Kuznetsova.
In her opening remarks, Galina Karelova noted that by distorting the facts, the Kiev regime is trying to evade responsibility for its own crimes. In this regard, Galina Karelova emphasised, the efforts of the Russian party should be ramped up by soliciting support of friendly states. “It is necessary to promote our agenda at important international platforms, first of all, parliamentary ones.”
Speaking about international adoption issues, the senator spoke about a meeting of the working group held by Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture Lilia Gumerova. The working group discussed the practicability of suspending adoption agreements with unfriendly states including Spain, Italy and France. “A clear position has been developed: we maintain the existing agreements because many of our children already live and are being raised abroad. The existing legal framework allows them to maintain the ties with their historical homeland, and for us — to defend their rights.”
The Senator also touched upon the issues of providing social support, medical assistance and rehabilitation to affected children. “During the mass medical check-up of children, we faced an acute shortage of paediatricians, primary care facilities, hospitals and health resorts,” Galina Karelova noted.
She urged increased efforts to identify and register young patients living with diseases. “Special attention should be paid to children with severe chronic and rare diseases. The Circle of Kindness foundation has already started providing such assistance.”
Galina Karelova also informed the audience that it was made possible to provide recreational opportunities for over 37,000 children from the new regions, with orphans, disabled children and children in difficult life situation among them.
The senator added that special attention was being paid to providing education for children in the new regions, including textbooks and other necessary implements. “On 1 September, 1,300 schools in the new regions welcomed scholars.” Galina Karelova emphasised that ensuring the safety of children is a priority: all primary and secondary schools and universities have been put under enhanced security. Plans are in place to analyse the state of anti-terrorist protection of educational facilities.
Anna Kuznetsova spoke about the preliminary results of the activity of the Parliamentary Commission and the proposals related to the protection of children. According to Anna Kuznetsova, against the backdrop of the accusations against Russia, the Commission has become a platform for collecting confirmed information from reliable sources. “After the previous meeting, with regard to the recorded instances of relocation of children, a draft law has been prepared on a monitoring system for children transferred to the third parties on the basis of a power of attorney. The document is being made ready to be submitted to the State Duma.”
The State Duma Deputy Chairperson said that the Commission constantly records instances of the Kiev regime recruiting children through social networks and messengers. “Children are forced to send photos and coordinates of the location of Russian troops, or get involved in subversive activity in Russia, and take part in creating fake content.” Anna Kuznetsova believes it is important to consider these risks when developing plans of the lessons, Basics of Security and Motherland Protection, as a preventive measure. At the same time, it is necessary to pay special attention to the rehabilitation of children who have already been recruited.
Anna Kuznetsova suggested inviting parliamentarians from foreign countries to take part in the work of the Commission because the Kiev regime’s crimes were already beyond Donbass and Russia’s border territories.
Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Inna Svyatenko briefed the meeting participants on the preliminary results of the working group of the Commission on improving social support measures and rehabilitating minors who suffered from the Kiev regime’s actions. According to Inna Svyatenko, during preventive medical check-ups of children, locomotor disorders and digestive conditions, as well as eye conditions were detected in the majority of cases. “In the DPR alone, out of 156,000 children, over 100,000 had health conditions; and for 82,000 of them it was detected for the first time. In addition, over 800 children from the new regions are awaiting scheduled hospitalisation and rehabilitation.”
Inna Svyatenko said that the working group considers it necessary, together with the Russian Ministry of Health, to work on the issue to connect the healthcare agencies in the new regions to the integrated state information system to ensure uninterrupted treatment of children with life-threatening and chronic diseases, including rare (orphan) diseases with medicines from the Circle of Kindness foundation.
The Federation Council Deputy Speaker added that most attention is being paid to children who were physically injured and have either disability status or suffered from the actions of the Kiev regime. “As of 1 September 2023, there have been over 11,000 such children.”
Inna Svyatenko called for monitoring the situation related to providing prostheses to children who became disabled as a result of mine-blast traumas in the new regions. In addition, it is also necessary to analyse the sufficiency of personnel in healthcare facilities in the new regions, including paediatricians. According to Inna Svyatenko, it is important to raise information awareness among teachers about the need to prevent children’s diseases.
The issue of interaction between the Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of a parliamentary investigation and voicing Russia’s position on the global stage was mentioned by Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik.
Alexey Talai, member of the Constitutional Commission of the Republic of Belarus and a public figure, spoke about the rehabilitation of children from Donbass in Belarusian health resorts and centres.
Following the meeting, Galina Karelova emphasised that there are many formats for the development of interparliamentary cooperation in investigations, which should be used to the maximum extent to convey the information received by the Commission. “We are currently actively using international women’s organisations whose participants hear us and try to convey the truth to the citizens in their countries.”
Regarding the Commission’s discussion of children’s recreation and rehabilitation, Galina Karelova stressed the importance of developing relevant infrastructure in the new regions. “At the instruction of Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko, a decision was made to prepare materials to begin the construction of prefabricated buildings in children's health camps in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics starting 2024.”