Russian Federation

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 2018, there were almost 6,500 underage children missing in 2018. This includes 2,300 young children under the age of 14. 4,000 of these children left home without permission and 2,100 children left child care. The Investigative Committee, however, reports a much higher figure – 13,600 children missing in 2018.

Why is there such a large difference? According to the Committee, it is because of how the number is calculated. Regardless, the real figure is likely to be higher because many missing cases may not be reported.

As of 2018-2019, more people are disappearing in big cities. The fastest-growing category is teenagers leaving their families or running away from school, as well as children under 11 who disappear in summer in nature.

According to the voluntary search organization Lisa Alert, around 80-90% of missing children are found. 80% are found alive. Approximately 10% of the total number of missing children is associated with crimes and violence against minors or accidents.

At the same time, the results of a study by Novaya Gazeta showed that 80% of crimes against children are committed by relatives or people close to the family. Quite often a child’s disappearance is linked to family kidnapping – when a child is deliberately abducted by one of the parents after the divorce or separation. According to the public movement STOP Kidnapping, in 2018 there were 500 registered complaints from parents suffering from family kidnapping. The figures listed above may not reflect the situation accurately enough due to the fact that abduction in intact families is not considered a crime, and many cases remain underreported.

Under Russian law, both parents have joint custody, unless a domestic court decides otherwise. If parents cannot agree on custody, a court will intervene and decide based on who is best able to raise, protect and guard the child’s welfare. A mother is often seen as better placed to care for a child in Russian culture. This may affect the court’s decision in favor of a mother and children growing up without their fathers. With more than 60% of marriages in Russia ending in divorce, that means a large number of children who may not have access to both parents. 

It is worth noting that in the Muslim majority regions of the North Caucasus, it is quite different. Under local laws, the father or his family are often granted custody of the child. 

When a child is born out of wedlock, the mother is automatically granted full custody. More than 21% of babies in Russia were born outside of marriage, according to the thematic report of Rosstat (Federal State Statistics Service) at the end of 2018. 

There is no such term as parental abduction or family kidnapping in the Russian legal system. The only regulation concerning parental abduction in the country is that a parent may be requested to provide written consent from the other parent to take a child abroad. However, written consent is only required when a child is accompanied by someone other than his parents or legal guardians. In most cases, the airport security does not question a parent’s right to travel with the child – even if the other parent is not there.

There is also no regulation of parental abduction cases that do not involve crossing the borders of the country. When there is no formal custody order and parents are living separately, parental abduction is not considered a crime. According to Russian family law, should the parents fail to negotiate child custody, the dispute is sent to the courts for a resolution. In 2014, there were almost 35,000 disputes, 36,000 in 2015 and 17,000 in the first half of 2016 alone.   

There is currently no legal mechanism for enforcing the court’s decision, meaning that a parent may continue abducting the child against the legal order and face no measures except for minor financial fines. The only situation mentioned under Russian law is “creating an obstacle to communication with the second parent.” The fine is up to several thousand Rubles.    If the divorce has not been legalized and the parents remain in a registered marriage, an act of parental abduction cannot be classified as kidnapping. The authorities have no right to interfere if there is no physical threat to the child’s wellbeing. The potential traumatizing consequences of parental alienation are not taken into account.  

More and more parents are failing to pay child support in recent years. In 2019, the amount of unpaid child support hit a record figure of 152 billion RUB, a 13% rise from 2018 (130 billion RUB). Compared to 2012, the debt has increased seven times from 19.8 billion.   

The Federal Bailiff Service estimates the total amount of alimony debts in Russia as 1 million RUB at any given time. The amount of debts that the bailiffs manage to collect does not exceed 10% of the total debt. Non-payers easily evade the legal demands of their former partners or pay symbolic sums of several hundred rubles per child. According to Rosstat statistics, every fifth parent granted alimony by a court decision does not actually receive it. Moreover, there is such a pattern that the more children there are in the family, the fewer chances are that the payer will provide the right amount of support. According to the statistics of the bailiff service, in the first half of 2019, there were 1.2 million court decisions on the recovery of alimony for 167 billion Rubles. Only a tenth of this amount is the cases that passed the court in 2019. The main bulk is what the bailiffs have been unsuccessfully trying to collect from non-payers for years.