Last week, a shocking video of removing children from the family appeared on the network. In a house with shabby walls, children's screams are heard, people in uniform pulling a crying child out of the hands of their mother, who is then handcuffed.
As it turned out, the shots were shot on May 25 in the village of Tulip, Orenburg Region. On that day, representatives of guardianship authorities and police officers came to the family of 26-year-old Alena Lichtenwald and 32-year-old Nikolai Samorok, who raise five children. The youngest son is three months old, the eldest daughter is six years old.
The reason for the visit of law enforcement officers was the emergency condition of the house, in which the ceiling could collapse at any time. According to parents, officials said that it is dangerous for children to be in such an environment, so they must be sent to an orphanage. At the same time, the couple said that for several years they have been seeking permission to repair the house with funds from the capital.
Dangerous house
According to RT, the head of the family Nikolay Samoroka, they bought a house in Tulip on the funds of maternity capital received after the birth of the second child.
“This was the only affordable housing for which there was enough money. We all had 453 thousand. You won’t find anything in Orsk, you had to buy this house, ”Nikolai explained.
He added, during the inspection of the house before the deal, he noticed a number of problems: not everywhere was the wiring was laid, the gas was not connected. But the realtor promised that by the time the contract was concluded, repairs would be completed. However, nothing has been done.
After that, according to Nikolai, they repeatedly turned to the local authorities with a request to help with the repair or to allow them to restore the house for the mother capital for younger children.
In January 2020, the man posted a video message on the network, where he shows the deplorable state of the house and complains about the lack of help.
“The most important thing is the roof rail. She burst, and several times we turned to the administration of the Krasnochabansky Village Council, but without results. They said do it yourself. We have governor capital - 116 thousand rubles for the birth of a third child. We asked for permission to improve our living conditions, but they didn’t allow us, they said: “It is not necessary,” Nikolai complains in that appeal.
However, the family did not wait for help; instead, guardianship officers began to come to them with checks.
According to the man, the situation was aggravated by the conflict with the doctors of the district hospital, to which his family is attached. In January, he filed a complaint against a nurse, accusing her of neglecting the illness of one of the youngest children.
“At a high temperature in the child, she did not insist on hospitalization and could not determine pneumonia. Then the child spent several days in intensive care. Doctors began to say that it was our fault, ”says Nikolai.
- © Screenshot from video: Youtube
Conflict with doctors
After the video with the removal of children attracted the attention of the media, the regional governor Denis Pasler instructed the Minister of Education of the region Alexei Pakhomov to deal with the situation. Soon, the minister told reporters that he checked the information and considers the removal of children is entirely justified.
As explained by RT Pakhomov, children from the family were not taken away because of the state of the house, but after complaints from doctors who suspected Lichtenwald of child abuse. According to the minister, the mother repeatedly prevented the treatment of children, did not call an ambulance when they were in serious condition.
In addition, doctors once discovered in an older girl "in the area of the solar plexus, a hematoma in the shape of a palm of an adult and on the back there are traces of a thin strap strike." Doctors reported these facts to the juvenile commission.
“The acts of medical workers record the state in which they found children. There are irritations and diaper rash. I just don’t want to open further diagnoses, ”the official said.
On May 19, the family again had a conflict with doctors. “Three months ago, the fifth child was born in the family, but from the time she was discharged from the hospital, the mother never showed the baby to doctors,” says Pakhomov. “The doctors came to her for a routine examination, but they were not allowed in.”
The doctors managed to see the child only on May 22, when the doctors said they would not leave until they realized whether the baby was alive.
“They take out the baby, and there it pours from the diaper. The baby lies in his urine. Mother does not allow him to be examined and tells the doctor: “I will not let you go anymore. Do not come anymore. " And after that an emergency meeting of the commission for minors was held, after which guardianship officers and police came to the family’s house. ”
Excess measures
At the same time, the minister claims that the spouses posted only a “small piece of video” on the network, which captures the events of May 25.
“In the first, largest part of the video, everyone persuades mom to go to the hospital with the children,” he says. - Do not give the children away, but go with the children to the hospital to do tests and examine the family. And the mother refuses. It was inadequate to handcuff her in this situation. But after this scene with handcuffs, she was placed with the children in the Dombarovsk district hospital, and four days later she left there, leaving the children there voluntarily and taking food that was intended for them. ”
Pakhomov explained that the situation arose because the local guardianship authorities did not work with the family in previous years. Evaluation of the activities of individual officials, according to him, will give the supervisory authorities. Also, a guardianship application has already been filed with the court to restrict spouses in parental rights.
The regional Ministry of Internal Affairs said that such harsh actions were justified - the woman resisted, so the officers "had to use physical force and special means."
In addition, the UMVD called the family dysfunctional. It is reported that Alena Lichtenwald was previously brought to administrative responsibility three times for failure to fulfill responsibilities for the education of minors.
At the same time, the acting prosecutor of the region instructed the district prosecutor to assess the actions of police officers and representatives of guardianship authorities who took part in the events of May 25.
The prosecutor's office plans to study all the details, including the behavior of parents, the state of the home, and what kind of work was done with the family by the authorities for preventing neglect and juvenile delinquency.
The Commissioner for the Rights of the Child in Russia Anna Kuznetsova has already condemned the actions of the guardianship authorities in Tulip.
“These measures are at least redundant, and how much they will be punished and what degree of responsibility the officials will face will be known later,” she told RT.
Promised Help
Shortly after the incident, local media reported that the press service of the governor and the government of the Orenburg region said that the family had already been allocated money for repairs that had not been carried out. Alena and Nikolai were very surprised by such statements.
“We learned from journalists that they gave us some money, but we didn’t get anything, nobody even offered,” Nikolai said.
Later, the information was clarified, explaining that the money issued meant the means of maternal capital allocated to the family for the third child, which they did not use.
“We asked for permission to spend this money on repairs, but we were refused: supposedly we already used the help in the form of a capital to improve housing conditions, that is, we bought this house,” the head of the family explained.
Nikolai said that members of the public have already offered to help his family with the repair or purchase of new housing if the house can no longer be repaired.
Guardianship authorities and representatives of the district administration did not want to comment on the situation with the seizure of four children from Alyona Lichtenwald and Nikolai Samorok. The eldest daughter at the time of the visit of the guardianship authorities was with her grandmother.
RT will continue to monitor the situation.