Last weekend, a man with a child illegally crossed the Zilupe River from Latvia into Russia on a SUP board. The border crossers were detained in Russia and the State Border Guard Service has requested official information from the Russian side on the status of the persons in Russia.
At the same time, the State Border Guard has opened criminal proceedings for illegal crossing of the state border.
LETA found out that Bukains had crossed the border with his daughter. The State Police confirmed to LETA that the police had opened criminal proceedings for the abduction of a minor.
"It is known that the child's father and the child illegally crossed the Latvian-Russian border, which was recorded by the State Border Guard Service, which has also opened criminal proceedings. Both persons have been detained in Russia," the police said.
As soon as information about this crime was received, the services took all the necessary actions, including an international wanted list for the child, and a report on the child was included in the Interpol database. A request was sent to the Russian authorities through Interpol to inform them about the child's whereabouts and the decisions taken, the police said.
Also, the missing persons' search organization "Bezvēsts.lv" writes on Facebook that on July 21, the father did not return the child, Monika Bukaine, born in 2019, to her permanent place of residence.
The father may have travelled in a grey Alfa Romeo with a registration number MR8904, the organization said in a statement.
Bukains' trial in the Baltic Antifascists case has not started in Latvia because, as LETA found out, the prosecutor's office is still conducting a pre-trial investigation. 'Baltic Antifascists' is listed as a criminal organization and is believed by the State Security Service to have been involved in collecting and passing sensitive information to a foreign power.
