Russia expels Finnish diplomat for assisting child abduction

A former diplomat at the Finnish Consulate in Russia’s northern city of St Petersburg has been deported after helping a Finnish father take his son away from Russia against his mother’s will, the Russian foreign ministry said Monday.

Simo Pietilaeinen sparked a diplomatic dispute between Russia and Finland last month when he smuggled five-year-old Anton Salonen and his Finnish father Paavo Salonen back to Finland in the boot of his diplomatic car, AFP reports.

Under an international treaty on diplomatic relations, vehicles belonging to diplomats may not be stopped or searched by border police.

Finland’s ambassador to Russia Matti Anttonen was summoned to the foreign ministry yesterday and briefed on the incident, the ministry said in a statement.

“He was informed of the declaration of Simo Pietilaeinen as persona non grata for the gross violation of Russian laws and the Vienna convention on diplomatic and consular relations,” the ministry said.

The boy, who has both Russian and Finnish citizenship, has been at the heart of a bitter custody battle since March 2008, when his Russian mother took him back to Russia.

A Finnish court later granted custody of Anton to the father.

During a visit to Finland last week, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin clashed with his Finnish counterpart Matti Vanhanen over the case, saying the diplomat’s acts disqualified him from public service.

Finnish President Tarja Halonen said Finland deeply regrets the actions of Pietilaeinen.