In Irkutsk, parents sent an open letter to Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, demanding urgent action against violence toward children. The letter was prompted by shocking cases of abuse of young children in the region, including the story of two year old Nikita Chemezov, and data on dozens of similar cases. The authors insist on creating a Child Protection Service, rehabilitation centers, and harsher punishments for abusers and rapists.

We, the mothers and fathers of the city of Irkutsk — and of all Russia, demand the creation and full state support of a Child Protection Service, endowed with the necessary powers for immediate response and the isolation of children from abusive parents.
OPEN LETTER
To the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev
and to the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
from the parents of Irkutsk and the Irkutsk Region
Dmitry Anatolyevich and Vladimir Vladimirovich,
We hope that you know about the beating of unimaginable cruelty, of which two-year-old boy Nikita Chemezov from the settlement of Malta in the Irkutsk Region became a victim. Right now, everything possible is being done to save the little boy in the Irkutsk Regional Children's Clinical Hospital, money and the things the child needs are being collected by everyone, and all of us are praying that a Miracle will happen, and that Nikita, after coming out of a coma, will be able to grow, play, laugh again — in a word, live a normal, full life.
Literally a few days after the world learned about Nikita, our region learned of a new incident — in the very same settlement of Malta, a certain Svetlana Popova, a stepmother with a prior conviction, beat and tortured the children from her husband's first marriage with a hot iron. And before that, a two-month-old girl was admitted to the district hospital in the city of Zima, brutally beaten by her stepfather. In the settlement of Naratay in the Kuytunsky District, a month-and-a-half-old boy died of starvation.
The "Vesti-Irkutsk" channel states, according to materials from the regional police department, that only in the first three months of this year, 150 cases of child abuse were registered in the region.
And how many such little ones suffer across all Russia — beaten, tortured, starved, raped, killed? How many little citizens of your country will never grow up because of adult cruelty and a sense of complete impunity? Can you imagine how one can rape a newborn girl? Can you imagine how one can "accidentally" stub out cigarettes on a child's belly?
Nikita Chemezov's stepfather, previously convicted Vladimir Shishkin, regularly beat him for a month — why did no one stop him and save the little boy? Where was the district police officer, where was the district pediatrician, why did the neighbors remain silent? After all, earlier, when Nikita and his mother lived with Nikita's great-grandmother, the family was registered as dysfunctional, so why, after the move, did the supervisory authorities not transfer information about them to the child welfare authorities at the new place of residence, since this information could have saved the little boy?
We believe that information about children from the moment of their birth should be accumulated from various sources (schools, kindergartens, maternity hospitals, clinics, passport offices, police) and constantly processed and used.
All of us are mothers and fathers, and that is why such news, which grows more numerous every day, is all the more terrifying to us.
Each of us has children, and therefore it is even less understandable to us why child murderers, torturers, and rapists receive lenient punishments for their unimaginable crimes and are released to once again torture, rape, and kill.
Every day we look into our little ones' eyes, and we do not understand why in our country there is such a careless attitude toward children's lives, health, and safety, why there is no clear, well-functioning mechanism for immediate response and the isolation of children from parents who threaten their physical and mental health?
Dmitry Anatolyevich and Vladimir Vladimirovich, we are addressing you not only as representatives of power. You also have children. We demand understanding and help! What is happening in our country is the destruction of its future, something that does not fit into the consciousness of a normal person.
We, the mothers and fathers of the city of Irkutsk — and of all Russia, demand the creation and full state support of a Child Protection Service, endowed with the necessary powers for immediate response and the isolation of children from abusive parents. We also demand the widespread creation of rehabilitation centers and a network of temporary foster families, where children who have suffered violence could recover from shock and pain.
We, the mothers and fathers of the city of Irkutsk — and of all Russia, demand harsher punishments for the torture, rape, and murder of children — we demand life imprisonment for child murderers, pedophile rapists, and torturers.
How many signatures — thousands of signatures, tens, hundreds of thousands of signatures — must we collect across Russia before you begin to act? How many rallies and pickets must we hold in support of our demands before you begin to act? We are doing everything possible to see and prevent violence against children around us; help us too!