At first sight it could have been a carefree family outing. Five-year-old Andrei Tkachyov could barely contain his excitement as he left home last month with his grandmother and uncle, dressed in his best clothes and with his hair well combed. They told him they were going to Disneyland.
Less than an hour later Andrei's grandmother, Nina Tkachyova, 55, and his uncle, Sergei Tkachyov, 30, were seized by plain-clothes policemen. They were accused of trying to sell the boy to an officer posing as a trafficker in human organs.
A police video shows the pair pocketing £64,000 after handing over Andrei, together with his birth certificate and medical records and a document in which his mother officially renounced all claims on him. Andrei sits alone, sobbing.
"At first I simply couldn't believe this," said Yuri Tereshkin, the state prosecutor handling the case. "How could this family bring itself to sell a five-year-old defenceless child?
"It is such a shocking case that it has been difficult to find a lawyer prepared to defend these people. There are poorer people than these in Russia, but never would they go this far for the sake of money."
Police in Ryazan, 100 miles south of Moscow, were first tipped off about Tkachyova's plans last summer while investigating illegal adoptions. After hearing she was looking for a buyer, they approached her, posing as middlemen with links to the "organ mafia". They borrowed expensive clothes and a four-wheel-drive car.
"We had no chance of following her every move to try catching her and a buyer," said Tereshkin. "It could have taken months and she might have tried to sell Andrei in Moscow. We were scared of losing him. So we decided on a sting."
Tkachyova: wanted £64,000
During the weeks that followed, Tkachyova, a market trader, had several meetings with a man she knew only as Igor, unaware that he was an undercover policeman.
She showed him photographs of her grandson, who had lived most of his life with her after Svetlana, his mother, stopped caring for him, married and had two other children. Tkachyova assured Igor that nobody would look for Andrei if he vanished.
Igor at first offered £32,000. She refused and demanded twice that amount, in cash. After more haggling, he agreed.
Tkachyova has admitted trying to sell her grandson, but denies seeking to sell him for his organs. She claims she was trying to secure him a better future with wealthy adopted parents.
Investigators are not convinced. They claim to have secretly taped a conversation between Tkachyova and Igor in which he made it clear Andrei's organs might be removed.
"Had she really intended to sell him for adoption she would have been shocked and called off the deal," said Tereshkin. "Instead she said nobody would look for her grandson and that all she needed was a certificate claiming he had been adopted."
Tkachyova, who had placed Andrei in an orphanage last spring, told investigators she got the idea of selling him when she saw a television programme showing how people were making fortunes by taking bribes to arrange adoptions.
She quickly removed him from the orphanage. After deciding that the internet was the best way to sell him, she advertised in a local newspaper for somebody who understood the technology. She also began spreading the word at the local market. Soon afterwards she was contacted by Igor.
Although investigators have no doubt that Tkachyova intended to sell her grandson for his organs, they believe she now regrets her crime.
That is likely to be of little comfort to Andrei, however, who has spent the month since his grandmother's arrest in an orphanage. Staff say he still cries himself to sleep every night asking for her to come and take him home.
Last week the boy looked sad and confused, barely able to speak. He has been told that his grandmother has moved to Moscow to find work. Staff say it will be years before he finally learns the truth.
"Of course I felt sorry for Andrei," said Tkachyov, who police believe acted under the influence of his mother. "I was also afraid of us getting caught. But we thought that we could buy ourselves a house, a car and some clothes. Above all I thought of my family."
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