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.”