The children of a central Russian political activist and his wife were seized earlier this month after authorities claimed they were "too poor" to look after them, media reports said on Wednesday.
Human rights activists say the "normal, sober and healthy" parents were targeted after the father, Sergei Pchelintsyev, railed against unemployment, poverty, pension reform and the "illegal dismissal" of GAZ automobile factory workers during a protest rally in the Nizhny Novgorod Region city of Dzerzhinsk last December.
His speech did not go unnoticed, and he was summoned to the regional department responsible for combating extremism and interviewed by officials there, the "For Civil Rights" organization said.
The organization also said that officials demanded that he stop speaking at rallies, threatening to cause problems for his family if he failed to heed their warning.
Pchelintsyev subsequently filed a formal complaint with the police.
The couple's three children - Maxim, 3, Anna, 2 and infant Dasha - were seized from the family home - one room in state communal accommodation - by local officials accompanied by television cameras on February 12, Pchelintsyev told the Moscow-based Ekho Moskvi radio station on Wednesday.
"It's clean in here," the couple were told by state child welfare workers, "but you are too poor."
The children are being kept in a local hospital while authorities decide their fate. Their parents are not allowed to visit them, media reports said.
Pchelintsyev earns some 10,000 roubles a month (around $330); a sum that while low is not uncommon for the Russian provinces. He also told the radio station that he and his wife had been refused child benefit payments they are legally entitled too, including free formula milk for their baby daughter.
MOSCOW, February 17 (RIA Novosti)
