Nine people have been sentenced to jail for child trafficking in Russia following an investigation into the European Center of Surrogate Motherhood. In all, four fertility clinic employees and two surrogate mothers have been jailed, along with three employees of a surrogacy consulting company.
According to The Moscow Times, authorities began investigating the surrogacy company in 2020 after one of the babies born to a surrogate mother was found dead in an apartment outside of Moscow. Three other babies were found in the apartment as well. The deceased baby was said to be about a month old and the cause of death was determined to be sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The surviving babies were sent to orphanages, though two of them were eventually ordered by the Russian Supreme Court to be returned to their legal Filipino parents.
The investigation found that the babies had been conceived using unknown donors — not from the foreign couples who were said to be their parents.
Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court found the head of the center, Vladislav Melnikov, guilty of child trafficking. He was sentenced to 19.5 years in prison. Two of the surrogacy center doctors, embryologist Taras Ashitkov and endocrinologist Yuliana Ivanova, were sentenced to 17.5 years and 16.5 years, respectively, for child trafficking. OB/GYN Lillya Panaioti was sentenced to 16 years and three months.
In addition to the center staff, surrogate mothers Tatiana Blinova and Liliya Valeyeva were sentenced to four years and 10.5 years respectively. They maintain their innocence.
Melnikov and Panaioti called the charges against them “lawless and absurd.” They argued that isn’t possible to sell children to their own parents.
Meanwhile, Konstantin Svitnev, the CEO of Rosyurconsulting, a company that arranges surrogacy programs, has been placed on the wanted list after fleeing Russia. His colleagues, Roman Yemashev, interpreter Kirill Anisimov, and courier Valentina Chernsyshova were given prison sentences of 5-6 years following a plea deal.
Women who act as surrogates are typically underprivileged and are looking to improve their financial situation. Wealthy couples and individuals are willing to treat these women as property — buying insurance in case the woman’s body doesn’t perform on demand as expected, or forcing a surrogate into an abortion if the baby is diagnosed with a disability, if too many babies implant, or even if the baby is the “wrong” gender.
Paid surrogacy is legal in Russia, but in December 2022, Russia banned international surrogacy in the nation, allowing only Russians to use Russian women as surrogates.
