Gay fathers leave everything behind – for fear of Putin’s investigators.

Alexander* (name changed) fled Russia with his son. The 40-year-old spoke to The Guardian newspaper about his escape and his fears. He did not want to risk having his six-month-old son taken away from him, said Alexander. When he read that investigators were planning to arrest single fathers who had had children via surrogacy, he thought he had lost touch with reality.

A source at the clinic warned him shortly afterwards because the investigators had looked at his son’s records – it seemed that Alexander would soon be in trouble. For the single father, the motto was: act quickly. Without hesitation he fled the country. And he has no intention of returning so soon either.

“Of course I want to come home, take my child back to a place he knows, where his grandmother and grandfather are close by.”

But he has little hope that the investigators will use their “common sense” and change their plans in time.

Happiness of a father
– Only okay for Putin if you are straight

“For these people it is a catastrophe”

Konstantin Svitnev, a Russian lawyer specialising in reproduction law, had to leave the country too because of the follwoing case. After a baby born to a surrogate mother was found dead in January, the investigators started their investigations. According to Svitnev, they had found no basis for prosecution because the child died of cot death – and instead focused on single fathers.

Svitnev said he knew other men who had left Russia with their children as a result of the investigation. He said:

“For these people it is a catastrophe. They have a job, a house, a business, they have built their lives in Russia. And now, because they decided to become parents in this country, they had to take their children with them, leave everything behind and run into the unknown.”

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