In Moscow, the first person involved in the case of the sale of children from surrogate mothers was convicted

"This is the first verdict in the case, where there are 10 more defendants, three of whom are on the international wanted list. Anisimov made a deal with the investigation and signed a cooperation agreement", - lawyer Igor Trunov told TASS.

Recall that three criminal cases were initiated on the fact of illegal IVF procedures and trafficking in newborns. The defendants are accused of “deliberate actions directly aimed at buying and selling a person, committed by an organized group in relation to two or more minors who were in a helpless state, moving them across the border of the Russian Federation and using fake documents” (paragraph “c” part 3 article 127.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Among the accused are Vladislav Melnikov, Director General of the European Center for Surrogacy, and Roman Emashev, Deputy Director General of Rosyurconsulting.

It's worth reminding that 11 surrogate babies were recognized as victims. In June 2020, five surrogate babies were found in a Moscow apartment. The children were accompanied by two Chinese nannies and were waiting to be sent to China to live with their genetic parents. They could not pick up the kids because of the quarantine introduced in connection with the pandemic. However, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on human trafficking. Six months earlier, a newborn boy died in a rented apartment in Odintsovo. As the ambulance and police who arrived at the call found out, there were three children in the apartment. A nanny took care of them. The boy received a traumatic brain injury during childbirth and was in the Morozov hospital. These two cases were united by the fact that their genetic parents were clients of the Rosyurconsulting company.