Anton Salonen

Anton Salonen () is a child with Russian-Finnish dual citizenship involved in a child custody dispute between his parents. The Finnish-born child was kidnapped by his mother in 2008 to Russia and in turn kidnapped and smuggled by his father back to Finland in 2009 with the help of Finnish diplomats stationed at the Finnish consulate in Saint Petersburg. The incident has sparked a diplomatic row between Finland and Russia.
Background
Anton's Finnish farther and Russian Estonian mother met in Tallinn in 1994 and were married in 1997. Anton was born in 2003, a year after his parents had filed for legal devorce. Anton's mother left Finland with Anton sometime after March 2, 2008. The 65 year old father blames the Russian orthodox church in Finland for the abduction. The lower court in Tampere has ordered that the mother be detained on suspicion of child abduction. The order is only effective inside the European Union. Russia is not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
Diplomatic incident
In April 2008 Anton was forcibly taken from his mother by his father near Nizhny Novgorod. He was later smuggled to Finland in the closed trunk of a diplomatic car by the legal consul at the At. Petersburg consulte, Simo Pietiläinen. The story was revealed on May 14 by the Finnish scandal paper 7 päivää causing a diplomatic incident. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov called his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb to protest and to demand an explanation. This was followed by a formal diplomatic note.
Reactions
The actions of the Finnish diplomat involved have been defended by Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb. The strongest critisism in Finland has been voiced by Johan Bäckman. The Russian media have compared the case to that of Eliza André.

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