On the first day of the New Year 2021, Konstantin N. Svitnev, CEO of Rosjurconsulting law firm, called the first reprodissident in Russia, gave an extensive interview to Surrogacy.ru. We talked about surrogacy, his beliefs and his struggle to recognize the right to procreation as an inalienable human right. We publish some of the most important theses.

The first among other equal human rights is the one to parent a child, to continue one’s family line. This is a natural, inalienable human right given to a person from above, ensuring the continuity of generations, the sustainable and progressive development of our society and the entire civilization.

I was the first to introduce this concept into everyday life in Russia, being at the forefront of the struggle for family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood. This is how I have become the first reprodissident in Russia and the world.

Each and every child who hasn’t be born is a missed opportunity to make this world better, a shut down window of unrealised possibilities and dreams that would never come true. A new and so possible reality that would never be real.

Continue reading on Surrogacy.ru

Dear Friends,

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2021!
Thank you for all your trust and confidence in our team!

Best regards,
Konstantin N. Svitnev,
C.E.O.

At the President of the Russian Federation’s press conference, the most acute and topical issues for the country were raised, such as how Dzyuba masturbates. Both Furgal and Safronov received presidential attention. My questions to Mr. Putin have been ignored today.

1. In the first seven months of the year 2020, the natural decline in the population of Russia (excess of mortality over births) amounted to 316,000 people. In this regard, how do you feel about the proposal of some State Duma deputies to prohibit surrogacy for single, unmarried citizens, both women and men, forcing them to go to the United States to exercise their right to continue their family line?

2. In 2020, the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee initiated several criminal cases concerning the alleged “child trafficking” under the guise of surrogacy. This includes the “fertility doctors’ case,” within which seven people have been behind bars on false charges for five months already. The best fertility specialists in the country are among these people. As the “main person involved” in the case fabricated by the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee, I am well aware of their innocence. All the evidence of a genetic relationship has been presented to the Committee. All my appeals to the General Prosecutor’s Office regarding the abuses that have taken place are forwarded to the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee. Being a person who directly supervises the Investigative Committee under the law, could you take this investigation under your control?

3. During the investigation of this case, agents have shown a great interest in the personal life and sexual orientation of doctors and patients of Russian reproductive clinics, lawyers and employees of surrogacy agencies. Is the sexual orientation of the accused a significant legal factor in the investigation of criminal cases? Do investigators have the right, in violation of the Russian Federation’s Constitution and Criminal Code, to take an interest in the personal life of the accused?

4. On January 9, 2020, three infants, citizens of the Republic of the Philippines, were illegally taken from their parents’ trustees during the investigation of the so-called. “fertility doctors’ case” and placed in an orphanage for children with organic mental disorders, where they recently celebrated their first birthday away from their relatives. The investigation officers believe that they were conceived using the sperm of unidentified persons and have no genetic relationship with their parents. Genetic parents provided the investigation officials with their DNA test results to verify their children’s genetic code. Nevertheless, the agents refuse to do so. They did not bother to run a DNA test on their own either. For 11 months now, the parents have not had any information about their children. They do not even know if their kids are alive. The parents have personally approached you with a request to help return their children to their family. Being the guarantor of the Constitution, which protects the family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood, could you intervene in this situation to facilitate family reunification?

Rosjurconsulting Law Firm joins the request of our colleague and partner Vladislav Melnikov, the CEO of the European Surrogacy Center, to remove the incompetent investigator in charge of the investigation team. Shortly, Konstantin Svitnev, the CEO of Rosjurconsulting, will make a statement on this matter.

Rosjurconsulting Law Firm has been successfully resisting the illegal attack of the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee for ten months already. In connection with information from TASS about the arrests of “single” men who have become parents in Russia through surrogacy programs and the seizure of their “incorrectly” conceived and “criminally” born children, Rosjurconsulting guarantees free legal support to ALL parents who have become victims of the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee.

Applications are accepted by e-mail.

In his commentary on Facebook, Konstantin Svitnev, CEO of Rosjurconsulting Law Firm, commented on his arrest in absentia. Please see his comments below.

“Tickertape on Russia-24: Svitnev has been arrested!!! The phone keeps ringing. I’m a star! REPRODISSIDENT! The first in the world.

My and my friends’ and colleagues’ crime, for which the Russian state represented by its Investigative Committee persecutes us, is that we helped childless people become parents. That we helped create new families.

We did everything so that despite everything, new children were born in Russia, not overseas. Children who could not be born in any other circumstances. Miraculous children in the literal sense of the word.

What will they become? New Pushkins, Repins, Tchaikovskys, Mozhaiskys, Zvorykins, Flemings, Mechnikovs, Sikorskys, Sofia Kovalevskys, Marina Tsvetaevas, Joliot Curies or Gertrude Elions? Or just good people? Who knows? Rabindranath Tagore once said: “Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.”

I helped ALL people who wanted to become parents, regardless of their gender, marital status, and sexual orientation. I helped because every child is a unique chance to change this world for the better. Because the right to continue the family line, to become a parent is a natural and inalienable human right given to us from above.

I helped because it WAS legal to have a child and to start a family in Russia. I was the first to prove it in our Russian courts ten years ago.

In PRESENT Russia, helping in the birth of one’s biological child is considered a crime. In PRESENT Russia, it is a crime.

I do not regret anything at all. I thank God and fate for giving me such an opportunity to make people happy. As George Bernard Shaw put it: “We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

I only regret that I did not work at full strength and did not manage to help everyone.

Reprodissident, yes…

Thanks to all those people who have entrusted me with the most precious thing in life, that is the birth of their children! Thank you for your trust, thank you for your daily calls, for your support and offers of help.

Thanks to all my friends and colleagues who are now behind prison bars. Thanks to today’s Basmanny Court decision, I am proud to be in the company of excellent people such as Vladislav Melnikov and Roman Emashev, Kirill Anisimov and Valentina Chernyshova, Taras Ashitkov, Yuliana Ivanova and Lilia Panaioti.

I am proud that in this challenging time, the company employees continue to work and do their work the way we are used to – perfectly well. Thank you, guys! I am glad we work together!

Soon, very soon, this hassle will end. The darkest hour is just before the dawn.”

I hereby inform all clients and partners of Rosjurconsulting that the decision made by the Basmanny District Court of the city of Moscow regarding my arrest in absentia will in no way affect the activities of the company and the fulfillment of our obligations.

All obligations of the company will be fulfilled in full.

We worked, we work, and we will work.

Konstantin Svitnev,
CEO
Rosjurconsulting Law Firm

Today, October 29th, 2020 is the first birthday of two Filipino babies, Arturo and Anika C. The third Filipino child Czandro P. also illegally detained in Russia, will be celebrating his first birthday in two days, on November 1st, 2020. All these children were born in Russia through surrogacy programs.

The children will be celebrating their first birthday in a state-owned orphanage for mentally ill children, away from their families, parents, brothers and sisters. This celebration will be without other kids and the love of their families, something natural and familiar for billions of people. No bunnies, teddy bears and balloons. This day will be spent on grey bureaucratic linen marked with blurred blue stamps. This day will be spent in a cold foreign country, in which they were born by the will of fate and which, like a steel roller of arbitrariness, lawlessness and indifference, rode through their lives, through the lives and destinies of their parents.

The children were supposed to go home in mid-January this year. Still, these plans were ruined by the “investigation” intervened in the “reproductive specialists’ case.” On January 09th, 2020, despite the presence of documents and powers of attorney, these babies were illegally seized and placed in a shelter from an apartment where they were taken care of by their parents’ proxies. 

Since then, the parents have not received from the Russian Federation’s officials any information about their children, their state of health, and what is happening to them. Are they alive at all?

Since January 9, 2020 parents have been fighting to get their children back. They have been appealing to all Russian Federation’s child and human rights organizations, going to the courts, but to no avail. And nowhere do they find sympathy and help in the Russian Federation. Tired of hopelessness, the parents addressed the Constitution’s guarantor, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir V. Putin.

To no avail again. “Investigation is in progress,” they answer. “Your complaint has been submitted to the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee for consideration,” they answer. In the meantime, neither parents nor their proxies have access to the children. There is no way to see them, even in photographs. “Secrecy of the investigation,” they answer.

The parents had a DNA test at the place of residence to prepare their genetic passport. This is a kind of a very complex master key, which, nevertheless, AUTOMATICALLY fits each native genetic “door,” the unique genetic code of each child related by blood with his or her parent. This key will not open any other door since the grooves will not match. Such a test takes from two to three days. No sharp needles needed to take blood. It is enough to take a buccal smear by swiping a cotton swab along the inside of the parent and child’s cheek.

Personal presence is not required either. The tests can be done even if they are performed tens of thousands of miles apart by comparing their results. And these results will either match or not. 

It is impossible to pick the genetic code artificially.

The grooves have already matched in both families in relation to all their children who managed to leave Russia for their home country. Paternity has already been confirmed for all children who are already in the Philippines.

But the Russian “investigation” officers refuse to file the test results as the materials of their fabricated “case.” They refuse to run a test on their own to compare two papers with the DNA test results (one sent from the Philippines and the domestic one). Based on the comparison results, a Russian laboratory must issue a third document. This conclusion will either confirm paternity or not.

This is the kind of paper that is missing to release unfortunate Arturo and Anika and their peer Czandro from the Russian state captivity, a hospital for children with organic mental disorders. This is the kind of paper I have been seeking from the “investigation” officers for the past ten months.

The “investigation” officers are not willing to run such a test. If they do run it, the children, whom the “law enforcement officers” consider “victims,” will have to be released from prison. If they do run it, their whole fabricated “case” will burst like a soap bubble.

Actions committed by the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee in relation to these and many other children who have become victims of the “investigation” officers are indeed a crime.

The children are indeed the victims. However, the Investigative Committee’s officers are committing this crime. Instead of protecting young children’s interests, they are ruining the children’s and their parents’ lives. They are crippling their lives, injuring their psyche, and destroying their future. This is a crime against the family, parenthood and childhood. This is a crime against the Russian Constitution, international treaties signed by the Russian Federation, a crime against humanity.

Indeed, the first year, the most crucial year in a child and parents’ life, has been irretrievably lost. One can neither return it nor live it again. There are no and will never be touching photos and videos with the first smiles and first words addressed to mom and dad, the dearest people in the world. And there will be no first steps. The Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee deprived the children and their parents of all this. The babies’ life, health, and mental development have been severely damaged. But there is still a chance to return them to everyday life by immediately freeing them from Russian captivity and returning them to their parents.

The performance of any system is not determined by whether it makes mistakes or not. Everyone makes mistakes. Errare humanum est, as the ancients said. A response to a human error determines the system’s performance. Finally, admit that you are wrong. Just acknowledge and return the children to their parents. How long can you victimize people who have believed in our country and entrusted it with the most precious thing in a person’s life, their children?

I DEMAND from the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee to show the children to their parents, to prove that they are alive and report on their state of health!

I DEMAND to carry out a genetic examination for paternity by comparing the DNA test results already at the “investigation” officers’ disposal in order to establish paternity between the parents and children living in their families in the Philippines, as well as little Arturo, Anika and Czandro, who are still in the clutches of the “investigation” officers.

I DEMAND from the Russian Federation’s General Prosecutor’s Office to fulfill its SUPERVISION functions and put an end to the lawlessness perpetrated in the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee!

Konstantin N. Svitnev,
Director of Rosjurconsulting Law Firm,
Parents’ Representative in the Russian Federation

In Russia, single fathers, whose children were born to surrogate mothers, are worried about being implicated in a human trafficking case that critics say is being instrumentalized for homophobic reasons.

“I’ve been working in accordance with the law since 2003,” the CEO of Rosjurconsulting Konstantin Svitnev, and one of those charged, told DW. “We were the first law firm to work in this area in Russia. Now there are hundreds of surrogacy agencies, but they are only investigating me and people whom I’ve worked with.”
He said that the prosecutors wanted to prove that they had been involved in baby trafficking and had simply handed newborns over to clients, whose eggs or semen had not been used at all. “This is not the case,” Svitnev insisted, pointing out that the defense team had put forward the results of a genetic report as evidence.

The authorities, he said, were not interested in human trafficking but in the sexual orientation of Rosjurconsulting and ECSM’s customers. Reports in the media implied that during interrogation, doctors were asked to provide information about any “signs of homosexuality,” amongst other things, which were exhibited by their clients.

“I never even ask my clients about such a thing,” said Svitnev angrily. He added, that in 2010, a court confirmed to him explicitly that single fathers could also take part in surrogacy programs. “This looks like an attack by the authorities on people who do not have a «traditional» sexual orientation, which, of course, is completely discriminatory.”

He said that searches that had been conducted into clinics with which Rosjurconsulting and ECSM worked in September were proof that investigators had been looking for gay fathers specifically because they had sought out information about single men. He also said that the interrogators had phoned several single fathers for an informal conversation. The Russian Investigative Committee would neither confirm nor deny reports about the interrogations or the nature of the probe. A request for information by DW to the committee remains unanswered. “The silence says plenty,” says Svitnev. “They were caught in the act.”
Svitnev has advised his clients not to partake in any informal conversations and to request an official summons. He also recommends fathers and their children have a DNA test and make sure all their medical files about the surrogacy are in order and legally certified.
Two of his clients have decided to leave Russia with their children.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/russian-investigators-target-gay-fathers/a-55288588

Surrogacy is under attack in Russia. My colleagues and friends, doctors (embryologists, reproductologists, even obstetricians), lawyers, interpreters, plain managers, my personal assistants and even couriers are being arrested and put in prison. Some were beaten.

I declare that this attack is not a mistake. It is a planned and coordinated attack on surrogacy, on absolutely legal businesses, IVF clinics and law firms, all people who assist intended parents from all over the world to become parents through surrogacy. It’s an attack on my law firm Rosjurconsulting, attack on me and my family. It’s an attack on the right to procreation, an unalienable, natural human right.

The “investigators” say there is a crime. Yes, indeed. But not mine nor my colleagues. It is a crime against innocent people, my colleagues and friends, a crime against “surrogate” children kidnapped by the “investigation”, a crime committed by “investigators” from the so-called “investigative committee” of Russia.

I’m not hiding and never will. I will continue fighting against criminals in the Investigative committee who fabricated this “case” from my Prague exile. I will fight for the life, freedom and honest name of my colleagues and friends, for my reputation, my family, for «surrogate» children kidnapped by Russian authorities, for my own four kids.

In my Facebook, on my website I will publish the truth about this completely fabricated «case». The «investigators» insist that intended parents never been to Russia, never made a deposit of their own genetic material, that their goal was not to have their own offspring, but to «buy» a child of someone else. It is a lie.

I declare that ALL parents from the so-called «11 episodes of a major Smirnova» from the «case» she fabricated, initiated their gestational surrogacy programs in Russian IVF clinics using their own genetic material, not donated (though surrogacy in combination with donation is absolutely legal in Russia) have a direct genetic link to their children gestated and born by surrogates. One patient who later fathered a child through surrogacy even underwent an operation in Moscow to extract his sperm for the IVF (TESE, a surgical testicular sperm extraction).

I have results of DNA tests and other proofs that all parents visited Moscow and IVF clinics before the start of the medical part of the program to leave their genetic material.

I was proud that unlike some «civilised» countries Russia legalised surrogacy, that a wish to parent a child was not a crime in Russia. Before these tragic days I was proud of my country where thousands of «surrogate» children were born since 1995, where I wished my own children be born as well. Now I’m ashamed.

I was proud that 10 years ago back in 2010 me and my legal team put an end to IVF discrimination based on sex and marital status in Russia – for the first time proving in court that single men and single women regardless of their citizenship could become parents through surrogacy in Russia and that all courts supported me and my position furthermore. On July 16th, 2020 a Moscow court put in prison famous doctors and prominent lawyers working in third party reproduction on the absolutely false and groundless accusation in «human trafficking» without any proof. Now I’m ashamed.

I was proud that personal life, private issues were not discussed in Russia, that privacy was really protected as stipulates the Russian Constitution. Now in homophobic hysteria «investigators» claim that unmarried intended parents – patients of Russian IVF clinics – who became fathers through surrogacy in my country – are all «homosexual» – as if it were a crime – and fathered their children to abuse them. Now I’m ashamed.

I was proud that Russian IVF clinics win in an honest competition with our colleagues from the USA, Ukraine and Georgia. That due to my personal efforts the absolute majority of Russian IVF clinics accept unmarried intended fathers as patients. Now, frightened by this ‘investigation», the doctors again started to reject these patients. Now I’m ashamed.

I declare that my law firm – Rosjurconsulting – will continue business and all obligations of my company and my personal obligations are in force. All gestational surrogacy programs initiated with my help and assistance will be completed.

We, lawyers, use to say «Veritas vincit», or, as they say in Czechia «Pravda vítezí» – the truth prevails, the truth will win!

Konstantin N. Svitnev
C.E.O.