Russia charges woman who adopted Mariupol teenager with child trafficking. Yes, you read that right. Also, Belgium eases Russian asset unfreezing while stalling Europe’s ‘reparations loan.’

The Russian woman who adopted a Mariupol teen now faces child-trafficking charges — in a Moscow court

One of the most public figures in Russia’s controversial “adoption” of minors removed from occupied Ukraine now faces up to a decade in prison on child-trafficking charges. Irina Rudnitskaya, who heads an organization that advocates for “family values” and supports foster parents, was arrested in Moscow on October 30 and placed in pretrial detention until November 22. Rudnitskaya, a clinical psychologist and mother of 12 adopted children, reportedly sought to avoid jail for the sake of her dependents. Her lawyers say they will appeal her detention. Authorities have released no further details about the case, in which two other women have also been jailed.

According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, Rudnitskaya once enlisted in the military to cope with the grief of losing her two-year-old daughter and served at a hospital in Shali, where she experienced the Second Chechen War firsthand. Following health complications, she began adopting children before launching a foster parent school in 2013 and then Family Commonwealth in 2017. In 2023, the Moscow regional governor’s office formally honored her for public service.

You should know that Rudnitskaya is infamous for adopting Bogdan Yermokhin, a Ukrainian teenager taken from Mariupol during Russia’s invasion. In the summer of 2022, Yermokhin was brought to Russia with his friend Filipp Golovnya, who was placed under the guardianship of Russia’s presidential children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Lvova-Belova and President Putin for two alleged war crimes: the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied Ukraine to Russia.

In March 2023, Russian security forces intercepted Yermokhin near the Belarusian-Ukrainian border as he tried to return to Ukraine. The following month, he appeared with Rudnitskaya on Russian television, where the two claimed that he’d been duped into the escape attempt by “Ukrainian activists.” However, when Yermokhin was summoned to a Russian draft board in November 2023, he publicly appealed to President Volodymyr Zelensky for help coming home. Within a couple of weeks, Yermokhin was allowed to travel to Belarus, where he met his cousin and then returned to Ukraine.

Another story worth your attention

Belgium eases Russian asset unfreezing while stalling Europe’s ‘reparations loan’

Euroclear, the Belgian central securities depository, has begun unfreezing Russian investors’ assets without requiring a U.S. license, according to brokers and legal experts cited by RBC Investments. Since mid-2024, Russians have needed licenses from both the Belgian authorities and the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to release frozen securities, which had stalled the process. Euroclear is now waiving the need for OFAC paperwork if no U.S. persons or institutions are involved, if the transfer happens within Euroclear, and if the investor holds a Belgian Treasury license.

Sanctions lawyer Gleb Boyko told RBC that the new mechanism applies to most investors whose assets are frozen in Euroclear accounts via the Moscow Exchange–owned National Settlement Depository (NRD), Russia’s central securities depository and domestic counterpart to Euroclear and Clearstream. NRD confirmed it received clarifications from Euroclear and continues to assist clients in unfreezing their assets.

Europeans should know that a significant share of the roughly $300 billion in Russian assets frozen by Western countries may belong to private investors. Most of the frozen Russian assets are held in Europe — primarily at Euroclear in Belgium, which has “balked” at a plan to lend $163 million to Kyiv using the frozen assets as collateral, citing legal and financial risks. Politico reported on November 3 that Belgium’s refusal to back the E.U. loan could prompt the International Monetary Fund to block financial support for Kyiv, “resulting in a cascading loss of confidence in the war-torn country’s economic viability.” Further complicating Kyiv’s economic outlook, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia continue to defy E.U. single-market rules by maintaining unilateral import bans on Ukrainian grain and other farm products.

Further reading

The inconvenient truth about Europe’s frozen Russian assets Millions of private investors have become collateral damage in Western sanctions against Moscow. Zhanna Nemtsova says the E.U. should do something about it.

7 months ago

Further reading

The inconvenient truth about Europe’s frozen Russian assets Millions of private investors have become collateral damage in Western sanctions against Moscow. Zhanna Nemtsova says the E.U. should do something about it.

7 months ago