Two children rescued from being sold by gypsies 'to human organ traffickers' 

The children's mother, Natalya, 39, a resident of Novosibirsk, had gone to live in the ex-Soviet state in Central Asia around a decade ago. She was found dead in suspicious circumstance in the village of Shalta on 11 September last year.

It is alleged that her boyfriend then immediately sold the children to gypsies, who intended to take the brother and sister abroad and sell them to traders in human organs. 

Russian ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Andrei Krutko, said: 'We got a call saying that two children - a girl, 13, and boy, 5, were on the street in the suburbs of Bishkek. They were begging and in a very bad state.' 

He added: 'The boy was extremely emaciated. Both kids needed medical help, but first of all they needed to eat properly.'

Vice-consul Anastasia Antonova stated: 'There are many reasons to believe that Natalya was murdered. Immediately after her death, the orphans were sold to gypsies, who tried, according to police and our own information, to illegally take children from Kyrgyzstan and resell them to traders of human organs.'

She explained: 'It was in September that we first received a call from the gypsy neighbours, and then they [the neighbours] came to the embassy in person. They said that the children had come to them, asking to hide them from the gypsies. Immediately they began to receive threats. They asked us to help.'

The children were taken from the street to the Russian embassy with the help of local police, said the envoys. The embassy issued new documents for the children and sent a letter to Novosibirsk officials, asking to take them into care. 

In late December, they arrived in Novosibirsk and now live in a rehabilitation centre. The centre's psychologist Nikolai Ryabtsev told KP: 'It was hard to gain the trust of the children.

'First we talked about Kyrgyz attractions, about where they had been there. But at the slightest movement of the hand Timofei fell on the floor and cowered. You do not need to be a psychologist to understand that the child had been beaten. So all sessions with the boy we perform only in the presence of Anna, his sisters, so he feels safe.'