Incident with Dagestani woman draws attention to problem of selling children

A resident of Dagestan was detained while trying to sell her newborn daughter for 300,000 roubles. Recently, cases when women from the regions of Northern Caucasus are trying to sell their children have become common, said Oleg Melnikov, the head of the "Alternative" Movement.

On October 9, the Chief Investigating Department (ID) for Moscow City of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) reported the arrest of a 25-year-old woman who was trying to sell her newborn daughter. A message about this was posted on the ICRF's website.

According to investigators, the woman was detained on October 8, while exchanging her baby for money.

According to Mr Melnikov, whose activists acted under the guise of the buyers, the woman is a native of Dagestan, who came to Moscow to give birth and sell her baby away from people who know her.

"We've found her advertisement on the Internet, as we are regularly monitoring networks for such ads; and contacted her under the guise of a couple willing to buy a baby. She told us that she needed some 300-400,000 roubles to buy a house in her village. Moreover, we made it clear several times that we need a baby for criminal purposes," Mr Melnikov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on October 12.

According to his story, the "Alternative" Movement, which has resumed its work in 2020 after a two-year break, has faced literally a wave of such cases, when young women from the regions of Northern Caucasus are trying to get rid of their newborns in this way.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 13, 2020 at 02:13 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.