Russia seeks to remove child from parents over opposition rally

Russian prosecutors sought to strip a couple of parental rights on Tuesday after they brought their baby to a rally, as the authorities pressed ahead with a crackdown on the opposition.

Over the past few weeks, thousands of Muscovites have taken part in protests over the exclusion of popular opposition politicians from Moscow's parliament elections in September.

The authorities have retaliated with a crackdown, opening a probe into "mass unrest" and making nearly 2,400 arrests at two unauthorised rallies over the past two weeks.

The prosecutor's office for Moscow said Tuesday it had petitioned a court to strip a couple of parental rights who had brought their one-year-old boy to an unauthorised gathering on July 27.

"During the rally the parents handed their young child, who was in a helpless state due to his age, to a third person thus endangering the boy's health and life," the prosecutor's office said.

"By exploiting the child, the parents abused their parental rights." The prosecutors said they were probing other cases that saw parents bring their young babies and minors to the unauthorised opposition rallies.

However, Yevgeny Bunimovich, the children's rights ombudsman for Moscow said using children to "blackmail" protesters was unacceptable.

"In my opinion, such things could not be grounds for stripping anyone of parental rights," Bunimovich said on Echo of Moscow radio.

"This is completely unacceptable. A line has been crossed." Mikhail Fedotov, the Kremlin-friendly head of the Russian Human Rights Council, said the move would create a dangerous precedent.

On Monday, the Investigative Committee said it had put out a search warrant for an opposition activist who had taken part in the July 27 rally.

Citing what it said were "open sources," the Investigative Committee said the activist, Sergei Fomin, had fled law enforcement agents by walking through a cordon while holding somebody else's baby.

He and a number of other people face up to eight years in prison for taking part in "mass unrest", if convicted.

The opposition accuses the authorities of unleashing a campaign of "political terror" to crush a new wave of protests.