Russian politician close to Putin adopts little Ukrainian girl abducted from Kherson, changing her identity
Inna Varlamova and Sergey Mironov. Photo: "Just Russia"
The leader of the "A Just Russia – For Truth" party, Sergey Mironov, and his wife, Inna Varlamova, secretly adopted a 10-month-old girl, Margarita Prokopenko, who was abducted during the occupation of the Kherson region by Russian forces.
They changed her name and citizenship, and she is now referred to as Marina Mironova.
This information was revealed by the separate investigations by the Russian opposition publication "Vazhnye Istorii" and BBC, Rubryka reports.
Documents obtained by the Russian publication indicate that the 70-year-old MP and his wife adopted Margarita Prokopenko, who was taken from Ukraine at ten months old while she was in a children's home in Kherson during the city's occupation by the Russian army.
From there, she was taken to Russia, and her name and citizenship were secretly changed, making her a Russian citizen named Marina Mironova.
"This is the first documented case of a Ukrainian child being adopted by a Russian politician of this rank. According to the lawyers we consulted, from the perspective of international law, this could be qualified as a war crime and is considered genocide," the publication said.
According to collected testimonies and documents uncovered by BBC's Panorama, the child was one of 48 who went missing from Kherson Regional Children's Home when Russian forces took control of the city.
The BBC worked with Ukrainian human rights investigator Viktoria Novikova to find out what happened to Margarita and the other children. Novikova has prepared a dossier of new evidence for Ukraine's prosecutor general's office, which will hand it to the ICC.
"The mystery surrounding Margarita began when a woman in a lilac dress turned up at Kherson's children's hospital, where the 10-month-old was being treated for a bout of bronchitis in August 2022," the BBC said.
In turn, "Vazhnye Istorii" reports that she visited the hospital with his first deputy in the State Duma, Yana Lantratova, where Margarita and two-year-old Ilya Vashchenko were undergoing treatment.
Immediately after their discharge, the children were taken from the children's home and transported to Moscow for "examination, determination of further treatment tactics, and rehabilitation."
Kherson — now back under Ukrainian control — was then in its sixth month of Russian occupation.
"We were afraid, everyone was afraid," Liubov Sayko, a nurse at the home, told BBC. She described Russian men — some in military camouflage — arriving to take the girl.
The BBC and Viktoria Novikova have been trying to trace Margarita and the other 47 children working for five months.
"Victoria uncovered a Russian document that authorized Margarita's transfer to a Moscow hospital for medical tests. A woman was named on the document: Inna Varlamova," the BBC reports.
The publication added that their project "Panorama" investigates what happened to "more than 40 children taken by Russian forces from a children's home in Kherson. The filmmakers, working with journalists in Ukraine, uncover falsified birth certificates, a secret adoption, and a trail of evidence leading all the way to the Russian parliament."
According to the BBC, their Russian source delivered crucial information: a document showing Varlamova had recently married political party leader Sergey Mironov.
The "Vazhnye Istorii" investigation has documents showing that a month after the court decision in December 2022, Sergey Mironov and Inna Varlamova adopted Margarita Prokopenko, who was then just over a year old.
At the adoptive parents' request, the personal data of the child could be changed, and indeed it was: the girl became Marina Sergeyevna Mironova.
Not only her name and patronymic were changed, but also her place of birth: instead of Ukrainian Kherson, it became Podolsk near Moscow.
A source familiar with Margarita and Ilya's situation told "Vazhnye Istorii" that the biological mother of Margarita has been deprived of parental rights, and the father passed away, but the child has other relatives.
The fate of deported Ilya Vashchenko is unknown to this day. According to Russian journalists' information, only a year after his deportation in September 2023, he received a new birth certificate. From it, it follows that Ilya is in the Moscow region.
What we know about the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children
According to official data from the Ukrainian authorities, from February 24, 2022, to Russia, 19,546 children were abducted from Ukraine. 386 children have been returned to Ukraine so far.
Moreover, Ukrainian ambassador Serhii Kyslytsia in the UN Security Council stated that Russia's invasion of Ukraine affected all 7.5 million Ukrainian children.
As Rubryka reported, the Ukrainian government has documented the presence of our children, kidnapped by the Russian Federation, in 57 regions of Russia.
Currently, in Russian "re-education camps," there are about 11,000 Ukrainian children.
After the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova and Russian President Putin, the Russian authorities changed their tactics of deporting Ukrainian children. Representatives of the Russian Federation began using new definitions in official documents to avoid accusations of kidnapping.
Ukraine has identified over 180,000 Russian war criminals – Anti-Corruption Headquarters
75 journalists have been killed during Russia's war in Ukraine since 2014 – Institute of Mass Information
