After jailing antiwar activist Natalia Filonova, authorities in Buryatia send her adopted son to remote orphanage

In Buryatia, the social services have taken away the adopted son of Natalia Filonova, a retired woman facing persecution for antiwar activism.

Filonova’s friend, the human rights activist Nadezhda Nizovkina, told the independent media that 16-year-old Vladimir Alalykin has been sent to a remote orphanage 300 kilometers (almost 200 miles) from Ulan-Ude, where the family lives.

Filonova is now in jail, allegedly for “assaulting” two policemen with a ballpoint pen, while being transported to a hearing in another protest-related case against her. She was under house arrest until late October, when her husband had a heart attack while visiting another region. Filonova went to see him in the hospital, and also tried to find her son, who was missing from home at the time.

After returning to Buryatia, Filonova was jailed in a pre-trial detention center. In December, the social services took her son into custody.