Alla Granalskaya, 49, has not seen her three grandchildren for over a year: after the death of their mother, the children were transferred to an orphanage, and then to a family of guardians.

The woman could not take the children to her place, since according to the documents, neither she nor her son are their relatives.

On October 5, the Rostov-on-Don court, where three children with guardians now live, denied Granalskaya the right to communicate with her grandchildren, not officially recognizing her relationship with them.

The woman considers the decision unreasonable, since she provided the court with a DNA examination, which refers to the biological relationship between her and the children.

"Take a look at the grandchildren"

“I was once at a training training in marketing, they told us about the principle“ Collect a thousand “no”: you may be refused a thousand times, but someday you will still get a “yes”, ”Alla Granalskaya is reviewing the documents in the corridor Department of Labor and Social Security of Moscow in anticipation of an appointment.

The woman wants to ask the officials what she needs to do in order to get the right to see her grandchildren. 

  • Alla Granalskaya.

  • © Photo from personal archive

The last time Alla spoke with them was on February 16 last year, when they were still in the orphanage.

Now the children live with their guardians in Rostov-on-Don, and Granalskaya, arriving there for court hearings, secretly came to their house in order to catch a glimpse of her grandchildren.   

“When I come to Rostov, I look at them from afar - I have no right to approach them or talk to my neighbors about children.

I see how they leave the house, go to school.

I watch how they are dressed, how they behave, whether they smile.

I miss all the children, but the youngest, Sonya, is somehow especially strong.

When I see a blonde girl on the street, I can't, everything shrinks inside, ”she says.

"Relationships gobbled up by household goods"

The mother of Alla Granalskaya's three grandchildren, Svetlana Demina, died on August 10, 2018.

She was 27 years old. 

Since 2009, the girl has lived with Alla's son Igor Granalsky in an unregistered marriage.

In 2011, their son Andrei was born, a year later - Misha, and in 2015 - their daughter Sonya (names have been changed).

The couple parted the following year.

According to Granalskaya, after the breakup, the eldest grandson stayed in the apartment with her and Igor.

The younger children alternately lived with their mother in an apartment that she inherited as an orphan (Svetlana was brought up in an orphanage), then with her father and grandmother, sometimes they stayed at the house of Svetlana's uncle Yuri Seryogin.

According to the documents, the children had only one parent - the mother.

Alla explains that it was Svetlana's desire to receive additional help from the state.

RT had at its disposal a birth certificate for the eldest of three children: Igor Nikolaevich is indicated in the column "father", but not under his official name, but under the name Demin.

According to Alla, the same information was indicated in the birth certificates of the two youngest children.

Thus, documentary Igor Granalsky is not the father of children.

Alla says that the relationship between her daughter-in-law and her son was very good, despite the quarrels.

“All families are quarreling, there’s nothing without it.

It seems to me that everyday life ate their relationship.

Igor then worked at a construction site, and in this area with money it is thick, then empty.

I and Igor's brother advised them to legalize the relationship, but they never got together.

If they had done everything then according to their mind, then perhaps these problems did not exist now, ”Granalskaya sighs.

  • Svetlana Demina

  • vk.com

  • © Photo from personal archive

After breaking off relations with Igor, Svetlana opened a new page on social networks.

As in the previous one, there are many photographs of her children, but there is not a single photograph with either Igor or Alla.

Granalskaya says that recently Svetlana has lived with another man.

According to relatives of Svetlana Demina, the girl died in her sleep.

In the accompanying sheet, drawn up by the ambulance doctors who took the body (the document is at the disposal of RT), it is noted that during the initial examination, the specialists "have no complaints", that is, the doctors did not find visible injuries and injuries that would indicate a violent death ...

“After the birth of her youngest daughter, doctors forbade her to give birth, they said that her heart could not stand it,” Granalskaya said.

- And her problems with this began in the orphanage, when her sister committed suicide almost in front of her eyes.

Sveta was then taken away with an attack. "

Banned from entering Russia

Almost immediately after Svetlana's death, on August 12, Alla, together with her son, went to the Shcherbinsky department of social protection of the population in Moscow to take the children to her.

The guardianship officials verbally refused them, since according to the documents they are not relatives of the children.

The brothers and sister were placed under the temporary care of a relative on the mother's side - Yuri Seregin.

During the time that the children lived with a relative, Igor Granalsky had to restore the lost Ukrainian passport with which he lived in Russia and apply for paternity.

To do this, he went to Ukraine.

However, he could not return to Moscow. 

  • Igor Granalsky and Svetlana Demina with their son.

  • vk.com

  • © Photo from personal archive

At the border, he was informed of an indefinite ban on entry to the Russian Federation.

As it turned out, the decision on this was made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the beginning of 2016 on the basis of Law No. 114 "On the procedure for leaving and entering the Russian Federation."

The relevant information is contained in the response of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the request of Granalskaya (available to RT).

However, the Granalskys never received an official explanation as to why the man was banned from entering the country indefinitely.

According to information from open sources, in the winter and spring of 2015, Granalsky was twice convicted of an administrative violation - his refusal to undergo an intoxication test while he was driving.

Granalsky has no information on criminal convictions.

"There are no grounds for meetings"

Meanwhile, Yuri Seregin, two and a half months later, abandoned custody of children due to "the lack of resources necessary to raise the wards," - this is stated in the official response of the press service of the Moscow Department of Social Security to RT's request.

Seregin himself explained to RT that by that time the term of temporary custody was ending and he realized that he could not raise all three children.

“For two or three years, my father did not lift a finger to establish paternity, and when the children were given to me, he said that he would take them in a month, but there was no result even after six months,” Yuri Seregin told RT.

- The only reason why the children did not stay with me is that I would have to quit my job, because the elders need round-the-clock care (the boy has acquired diabetes -

RT

), and I could not be left without work.

I do not mind that Misha and Sonya live with me, but they told me that it is impossible to separate brothers and sister, if you take away, then all together. "

The Moscow Department of Social Security told RT that the guardianship authorities were ready to hand over the children to their father and grandmother, but they delayed too much and "never began the procedure for registering guardianship."

According to Granalskaya, she repeatedly asked for a meeting with her grandchildren when they again ended up in the orphanage, but officials told her that she did not have documents confirming relationship, or documents of a candidate for adoptive parents or guardians, and without these papers there are grounds for meeting are absent (at the disposal of RT there is a response from the Shcherbinsky department of social protection to Granalskaya's request to visit children, dated January last year). 

"Is a grandmother"

In January 2019, Alla enrolled in the foster parents' school in order to be able to take care of the children.

However, on February 22, Granalskaya's grandchildren were transferred to their guardians who live in Rostov-on-Don.

According to the Moscow Department of Social Security, this happened because neither Alla nor Igor "began the procedure for registering guardianship and did not express a desire to see the children."

Granalskaya tried to challenge the decision of the guardianship authorities in court.

But last summer, the Lyublinsky District Court of Moscow decided not to consider Alla's application to establish the legal fact of kinship with her grandchildren.

According to the judge, it is necessary to file not an application in a special procedure, but a statement of claim.

Granalskaya challenged the court ruling, but the decision remained the same.

Then she turned to the Rostov court with a claim to recognize the relationship between her and the children and determine the order of communication with them.

As proof of the relationship, she provided a molecular genetic examination, which was carried out at the Russian Center for Forensic Medical Examination of the Ministry of Health.

As noted in the document, the probability that Granalskaya is the native grandmother of three children on the paternal side is 99.997%.

“Accordingly, it is this value (99.997%) that characterizes the likelihood that A.N.

Granalskoy, Igor Nikolayevich Granalsky, may be the biological father of all three children, ”the expert said.

At the same time, Igor Granalsky appears in the text as “the alleged father”, since his biomaterial was not provided for research.

According to Granalskaya, Igor tried to transfer biomaterial from Ukraine, but due to the coronavirus pandemic in March this year, the borders between the countries were closed.

The October Court of Rostov-on-Don examined the findings of the expert examination and ruled that a woman has no right to communicate with children.

The court's press service declined to comment on the decision, pointing out that the case concerns minors.

Lawyer Svetlana Bashlai, who represents the interests of the current guardians of the children, noted that the court refused Granalskaya to communicate with the children, since their family relationship had not been established.

“The medical examination did not establish the relationship between Granalskaya and the children.

The expert pointed out that if we take as a basis that Granalsky is the biological father of minors and Granalsky's own son, then they are probably relatives at the level of "grandmother - grandchildren" on the paternal side.

But since the experts did not study the biological material of Granalsky, the expert's conclusion is also doubtful, ”the interlocutor of RT explained.

She noted that, despite the ban on entry into the Russian Federation, Igor Granalsky can officially establish paternity, and do this in a pre-trial manner.

“If a man applied to the guardianship authorities with a request to establish paternity, it would have been done in a pre-trial, administrative order, but he still has not filed a petition,” the lawyer said.

"I will never go to the world"

RT managed to communicate with a resident of Rostov-on-Don, who, together with her husband, took care of the children.

Ekaterina said that they found the brothers and sister by accident.

“My husband and I applied to the guardianship authorities, graduated from the school of foster parents, and we were included in the database of potential guardians.

We found Andrei, Misha and Sonya by chance: when I saw them, something sank in my mind, and I realized that they were my children, ”says Ekaterina.

According to her, when they took the children with them, all three had health problems.

“The older boy has diabetes, the middle one has sinusitis and prolapse of the kidneys.

The youngest girl had two teeth knocked out.

We have already performed two operations on her, and she will have to carry out two more to restore her health, ”the interlocutor says.

Catherine says that she was ready to allow Alla to see her grandchildren, but their communication did not work out from the very beginning.

“It all started with the fact that she found my contacts and began to offend me, throw mud at my family.

Her son also called from Ukraine, also with threats.

If I saw that she really needed children, if she could communicate with me calmly, I would never refuse her: we have a big house, she could come there when it is convenient for her to communicate with children, - says Ekaterina.

- My position is tough, but I will not give offense to my family.

Now I will never go to the world from Granalskaya.

These children are mine, everything. "

  • Children of Svetlana Demina in Rostov-on-Don.

  • © Photo from personal archive / ok.ru

Alla herself says that she could not agree with the family of guardians because of the insults from Catherine, but notes that her main complaints are against the guardianship authorities.

“I am grateful to the guardians for the fact that they now take care of children, help them, dress them.

Of course, they get good payouts for them, but that doesn't change the fact that they are kind to my grandchildren.

As a woman, I even understand Catherine, I understand that she got used to children over these months.

But haven't I gotten used to them in eight years?

I do not understand why the guardianship authorities gave the children to someone else's family, knowing that they have a grandmother who is preparing to take them into care. "

In February next year, the eldest child, Andrei, will turn 10 years old.

According to the law, from this age, the court, when considering a custody case, can call the child himself and ask with whom he wants to live.

Granalskaya is sure that the children still remember her and their father Igor and want to return to them.

“No matter what they say about us, Andrei will not be able to forget about Igor - since childhood he was dad's son.

I'm sure he will say that he misses me and his dad, ”Alla said.

"The problem of unregistered marriages"

Elina Zhgutova, head of the Ivan-Chai public organization, notes that the situation in which three children find themselves is not unique to Russia.

“This is the problem of unregistered marriages: when the biological father, after the death of the mother, essentially turns out to be nothing to his children.

Formally, the guardianship authorities were right when they gave the children to the family of guardians, because according to the documents, Alla is not their relative, '' the interlocutor of RT explained. 

In her opinion, such controversial situations can be avoided if Russia legally establishes priority for relatives when appointing guardians over minors.

This amendment to the Family Code is contained in a bill that was previously introduced to the State Duma by Senator Elena Mizulina and her colleagues.

“If this law is adopted, then the grandparents of children will not have to go through the school of foster parents in order to take their grandchildren from orphanages.

They will be assigned the status of “adult significant for the child,” explains Zhgutova.

- I know several stories when neighbors take care of the children of unlucky alcoholic parents.

When parents die, the people who took care of the children cannot raise them further, because according to the documents, they are nobody to them.

The new amendment will help to avoid such problems, since the guardianship authorities will be able to communicate with witnesses and the children themselves and find out who is a significant and close adult for them ”.