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German Family That Settled In Siberia Reportedly Leaves Russia


Eugen Martens with some of his 10 children whom he had relocated to Siberia from "sexually permissive" Germany. (file photo)
Eugen Martens with some of his 10 children whom he had relocated to Siberia from "sexually permissive" Germany. (file photo)

A German family with 10 children that settled in Siberia has reportedly returned to Germany just months after moving to Russia.

Russian-born Eugen Martens, 45, told RFE/RL in January that he had applied for repatriation under a Russian government program in October and settled with his family in Kyshtovka, a village in the Novosibirsk Oblast, in December.

Martens and his wife, Louisa, were born in Siberia's Omsk Oblast and were among hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans who emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Germany in the 1990s.

The family's return to Russia made news in December. Martens said they moved due to concerns about what he described as the sexual permissiveness of German society and the influx of refugees there.

Russian media reports on February 27 quoted a friend of the family in Kyshtovka as saying that they had left for Germany on February 24, flying out of Novosibirsk.

Local authorities said the house given to the family in Kyshtovka has been empty for days.

The reports did not indicate why they decided to go back to Germany.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, vn.ru, ura.ru, and Rosbalt
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