Russian couple try to sell baby daughter

A young couple have stunned Russia by trying to sell their daughter for $1,000 so they could buy a new house.

In an incident betraying the poverty and desperation in which many Russians live in the regions outside of Moscow, Sergei Pivovarov, 29, and Olga Kemerova, 30, were arrested by police on Wednesday night. They had been walking the streets of Moscow, reportedly asking passersby if they were interested in buying their 18-month-old daughter, Margarita.

The couple originally sought $10,000 (£6,000) for the girl. Yet they became increasingly desperate and eventually agreed to $1,000 offered by an undercover policewoman who approached them.

The couple agreed to make the exchange on Tuesday evening in a waiting hall of the Yaroslavksi railway station, Moscow police confirmed. But the pair arrived without Margarita, and the police called off the sting, arranging another meeting at 10.30pm the next day. Then, once the parents had taken marked notes from the undercover policewoman clinching the deal, they were arrested.

Like thousands of Russians from across the impoverished regions, the couple, poor farm workers from the Voronezh region 300 miles south of Moscow, arrived in the capital on August 10 last year in a bid to "improve their financial situation". Initially they lived with friends, and then with Olga's brother in the town of Taldom, near Moscow.

Moscow police confirmed the couple, who had no previous criminal records, wanted to buy a new house with the cash. Mr Pivovarov told police Ms Kemerova's brother had heavy debts, and was going to lose his home as a result. He said they were hoping to move back to Voronezh where they would use the $1,000 to buy a new home and start a business there.

The arresting officers reportedly told the couple they should have tried to sell themselves first. Mr Pivovarov replied his girlfriend was a woman of high moral standing who would not stoop to that. The couple may get up to 10 years for the crime, the first case of parents selling their children that Moscow's transport police have dealt with.

Their daughter Margarita, born on February 13 2002, has been taken to hospital for a medical check up. She is described as looking malnourished, and will live in an orphanage until authorities can determine her fate.

Unicef said last month that an estimated 1.2 million children are given up or sold to traffickers each year. They end up working as labourers, professional beggars or prostitutes. The impoverished conditions of the former Soviet Union states Ukraine, Belarus and Russia have led them to be recognised as particularly susceptible to child trafficking.

Poverty is rife across much of Russia's 11 time zones, with wages sinking to as little as $100 a month outside of Moscow. The comparative boom of the Moscow economic zone has led to economic migration, as the capital swells to accommodate temporary workers.