After the Swedish social services attempted to place Denis Lisov's three children in a Muslim foster family, the Russian father took his daughters and fled Sweden, unleashing a thriller-like sequence of events. Denis Lisov came to Sweden seven years ago. In 2017, his wife fell ill, whereupon social services decided to take away his children on the grounds that he had no full employment and was therefore unable to take care of them. Instead, they were placed in a Muslim Lebanese family. Lisov's family formally retained the custody of the children, but only had the right to see them six hours a week, the Swedish news outlet Samhällsnytt reported.
According to Babken Khanzadyan, who represents the Lisovs, they weren't given any opportunity to defend their rights, and the girls didn't want to stay there.