A Russian gay couple has requested asylum in the United States after authorities launched a criminal investigation over their adopted children, their lawyer said Thursday. The two men, Andrei Vaganov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, and their two adopted sons are now in Seattle and requested asylum in the US this month, lawyer Maksim Olenichev said.

"They like it there," said Olenichev, a lawyer with Vykhod (Coming Out) support group based in the northwestern Russian city of Saint Petersburg, which has been helping the family. He said the boys, aged 12 and 13 are going to school in the US and "the initial period of adaptation is going well."

The pair fled Russia this summer under huge pressure after the authorities opened an unprecedented criminal case accusing social workers of negligence for allowing the family to bring up the children. The case was opened after one of the boys told doctors that his adoptive father, Vaganov, lived with a male partner. Read more via Wion