Russian media vows to 'protect' suspect as Brit boy, 3, 'abducted' from Marbella

Russian media has waded into a row over a missing British boy feared kidnapped by his Russian mother.

A state media pundit has declared the boy is “Russian” and demanded the Putin regimeshould “do everything possible” to “protect the mother’s right” to be with the child. Little Oliver Pugh is the subject of a major police search after going missing from Marbella, on the Costa del Sol.

Kremlin-funded Russian state propaganda media columnist Vladimir Kornilov said today on his Telegram channel: “It is suspected that she [the mother] took her son to Russia. This, of course, is not yet a fact.

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“But if this is indeed the case, it seems to me that we must do everything possible to protect the mother's right to be with her Russian child! Well, if London can call him British, why can't I call him Russian by the same logic?”

He asked: “How [do] you determine that the boy is British if his mother might think otherwise?”

Oliver is described as 2ft 7in tall with blonde hair and distinctive grey eyes. Spain's National Police, which is treating the case as an abduction, has asked for anyone with information to contact them.

A spokesman said: “We are treating this as a parental abduction. We believe the mother has left Spain and has taken the boy to her homeland, which is Russia.”

There has been no official comment from the Russian authorities as to whether the child is in the country. Oliver was last seen in Marbella on July 4, but his father only reported him missing more than a month later on August 7.

It is understood the three family members were based on the Spanish coast, but the custody situation is unclear. Police have released details of who they believe snatched him, with detectives confirming the case was being treated as a "parental abduction", pointing the finger at his mother, a Russian national. Yesterday, police confirmed little Oliver and his father are both British citizens, while the mother is from Russia.

It is not immediately clear if the boy has joint Russian citizenship, nor whether an international arrest warrant has been issued for the mother. Russia always refuses to extradite its own citizens.

The Foreign Office is “supporting the family of a British child who has been reported missing in Spain”.