Mother makes tearful plea to PM for help getting missing sons back

A mother whose two young boys are being unlawfully held in Russia today made a tearful plea to the Prime Minister for help bringing them home.

Rachael Neustadt told the Standard she wanted to appeal to David Cameron as a father and ask him how he would feel if his “baby was taken”.

The Hendon resident called on Mr Cameron to contact Vladimir Putin personally and ask the Russian leader to fulfil legal obligations that demand her boys are returned.

She also sent a letter to Downing Street and has set up two new online petitions as part of her quest to bring them home.

Ms Neustadt, who lives with her other son Meir, two, said: “I would appeal to [Mr Cameron] as a parent. How would any parent feel if their baby was taken? I would love for him to get on the phone with Putin today and just say to him that we have to make this work.”

In December 2012, Daniel, seven, and Jonathan, five, went on holiday to Russia with their father Ilya Neustadt, but in January they did not come back when they were supposed to.

Ms Neustadt, 36, then received an email saying the boys would not be home for the foreseeable future.

Since then the British High Court has demanded their return and in November their mother won a landmark decision when the Russian courts ruled her boys should be returned to her.

The case was the first to use the 1996 Hague Convention on child abduction successfully in England and Russia.

But Ms Neustadt says Mr Neustadt, a former London Metropolitan University lecturer, has “flouted” the ruling.

Now the father and the two boys apparently cannot be located and Ms Neustadt claims the Russian authorities are failing to fulfil their obligation by not enforcing the court’s judgment.

Ms Neustadt, a UK resident, has dual US/German nationality, but she says the UK government should also help pressure Russia to act given that it is the UK courts that have ordered her children’s return.

Her letter to Mr Cameron read: “If this ruling is not enforced, the UK Government’s silence surely sends the wrong message. What incentive will any country have to fulfil its obligations?”

It added: “Pressure must be put on the appropriate authorities in Russia so that the children are found and safely returned.”

She now hopes petitions on the petitionsite.com and the official UK Government petition webpage will bring about a response. A government spokesman said this was a “difficult case” but that the UK expects “all countries that have signed the convention to respect rulings made under it”.