A resident of St. Petersburg, 40-year-old Maria Kosovskaya, is fighting for her two nieces, who were taken from their family in 2019 and transferred to guardians in Adygea.

Refused to restore custody

As RT already told, the twin sisters Nelly and Klavdia were born in June 2018 in the city of Koryazhma, Arkhangelsk region.

Their mother Valeria Shipper has been registered at the Koryazhma city hospital since 2016 with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, an episodic type of treatment.

As the girls' grandmother Olga Peeters explained, her daughter has a third group of disabilities, she does not pose a threat to others and can work.

Nevertheless, in September 2018, Valeria was limited in parental rights by a court decision (at the disposal of RT).

The court noted that a woman does not pose a threat to children, but cannot cope with her duties "due to a reduced sense of responsibility and lightness of judgment."

After that, custody of the girls passed to the grandmother.

Soon she had to leave the city because of work, at the time of her departure she hired a nanny who looked after the granddaughters.

While Olga was not in the city, the girls were admitted to the hospital.

According to her, they were healthy, and it was just an excuse to take them away from the family.

“I was forced to write a statement that I am giving up custody for a while, allegedly so that the children could stay in the hospital.

I indicated there that I would soon take the children back, ”Olga Peeters told RT.

Nevertheless, the sisters were taken to an orphanage in Arkhangelsk, and the grandmother had to restore custody rights.

According to the woman, she tried to regularly visit Nellie and Klavdia, constantly called the shelter to inquire about their health.

However, the guardianship authorities in Arkhangelsk refused to restore the grandmother's rights, considering that this was not in the interests of the children.

The woman tried to appeal this decision in court, but he sided with the guardianship.

The decree noted that Olga Peeters rarely visited her granddaughters.

She herself explains that in December 2018, she and her daughter were simply no longer allowed into the orphanage, saying that there was quarantine there.

The girls were taken to Adygea

Seeing that the grandmother was unable to return her granddaughters, in August 2019, their aunt Maria Kosovskaya decided to take the children with her.

“I have sent documents confirming the relationship to the guardianship.

Started collecting documents, enrolled in the school of guardians / adoptive parents.

But they refused me, and the nieces were transferred to strangers in another region.

Allegedly, not all of my documents were ready, and the guardians had already provided the full package, ”she said.

On August 22 (even before the court decision on the suit of Olga Peeters on the restoration of guardianship came into force), the children were taken to another family in Adygea.

The grandmother reached the appeal in court, but lost.

Aunt also tried to obtain guardianship through the court.

“I lost the first custody hearing in February 2020.

I realized that everything is deaf here, I urgently need to go for adoption, before the guardian gets ahead of me, ”she said.

The adoption suit was filed with the Giaginsky District Court of the Republic of Adygea.

The first meeting was in March last year, then the hearings were postponed for a long time due to the pandemic.

The next one took place only in July.

Maria Kosovskaya fears that the case is deliberately delayed in order to later say that the girls are used to a guardian.

“But the kids are small, in St. Petersburg there are excellent psychologists who will help them quickly adapt, especially since they will come to their own family, where sisters are waiting for them - I have two daughters,” she says.

The woman believes that she has every right to adopt nieces.

“In addition to the fact that these are my relatives, and the financial situation, and the state of health, and the skills of a guardian (I took special courses), everything testifies in my favor,” says Kosovskaya

The family is well provided for: both husband and wife work, they own an apartment in the city, a house in the Leningrad Region, and a car.

Guardians prevent meetings

The girls' relatives tried to keep in touch with them even after they were transferred to another family.

But it was not possible to establish contact with the guardians.

As Olga Peeters recalls, when she called her foster family for the first time, they did not even speak to her, and the first visit to her granddaughters ended in a conflict.

The aunt also tries to visit the girls, but the guardians, she says, interfere with communication.

“He promises I’m going for 2,200 kilometers, but he refuses in the last minutes.

Thanks to the Giaginsky guardianship, they contact me, receive parcels for the girls and give them to the guardian, send me stable reports.

They even gave me a specialist, with whom I went to stand at the fence, because the court does not believe that the guardian does not give me a meeting with the children, ”says Maria Kosovskaya. 

The actions of the Arkhangelsk guardianship raise questions among lawyers.

“It is not clear whether there were really good reasons to take children away from a blood mother, and if there were, then why it was necessary to separate children from other blood relatives who were ready to take care of them.

I hope that the court, when considering the case, will give, among other things, an assessment of the actions of the guardianship authorities, ”says Pavel Kantor, a lawyer from the legal group of the RBOO“ Center for Curative Pedagogy ”.

Lawyer Ramil Gazatullin also wondered why the children were transferred to a foster family, without waiting for the entry into force of the judicial act.

“I believe that initially the guardianship authority, on its own initiative, was obliged to consider the issue of transferring children to relatives, including through their adoption.

The fact that the foster family refused to meet with the granddaughters can be explained solely by the actions of the guardianship authority, although this right is directly provided for by the Family Code of the Russian Federation, ”he says.

According to the lawyer, the chances of satisfying the adoption application can be estimated very high.

Kantor agrees with him: “When considering such cases, the court and guardianship authorities should take into account the relationship between children and a candidate for adoptive parents.

At the same time, the position of the guardianship and trusteeship authorities in this matter raised questions from the very beginning ”.

The next court session will be held at the end of March.

Aunt and grandmother hope that the court will finally put an end to this story and Nelly and Claudia will return to their relatives.