"Run, girls, home": how the Spanish judicial system takes away children from Russian women

Russian women who married foreigners told RT about how the Spanish judicial system deprived them of their children. As part of the “We Don't Leave Ours” project, they shared stories of physical and sexual abuse and complained about the injustice and lawlessness they had to face in Europe.

"I was shocked"

Daria Voronina (surname changed.

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RT

) from St. Petersburg married a citizen of Chile in 2014 and moved to his homeland. At first, the pair was idyllic. “We complemented each other, especially intellectually. It was interesting for me to be with him, ”recalls Daria. But when she was in the first months of pregnancy, she realized “that she was in a mess,” the girl shares: “Shouts and insults began. I was thrown into a stupor by his emotional reactions. After another scandal, he told me that if I try to get a divorce, he will take our unborn child away from me. "

Daughter Rebecca (name has been changed -

) was born in 2015.

The girl received Russian and also Chilean citizenship.

In 2016, when the baby was one year and three months old, the family moved to Spain - according to Daria, due to her husband's financial problems.

Marital relations at that time went completely wrong, says the Russian woman.

“Threats, jealousy, total control and physical violence,” she lists.

- When I did not want to put up with him after another night scandal, he said that since I need a child, he will make me another now, after which I can blame.

He tried to rape me in front of our one and a half year old daughter, who was sitting a meter away from us. "

Voronina divorced her husband in 2018.

Rebecca, by court order, lived with her mother, and she went to her father with an overnight stay several times a week.

According to the Russian woman, after spending the night with her father, the girl behaved strangely, often cried, screamed in her sleep.

And in the fall of 2019, Daria recalls, her daughter, who at that time was four years old, began to return from her dad with redness in the groin area.

The consultation with a child psychologist only strengthened Daria's suspicions: “My daughter said that her dad was touching her intimate parts of her body and showed her exactly how it was on the doll.

In the following appointments with a psychologist, Rebecca drew objects that her father used to penetrate.

To say that I was in shock is to say nothing. "

Daria filed a complaint about sexualized violence in court, attaching a psychologist's report, a video with her daughter's story, her drawings, and requested a warrant to prohibit her ex-spouse from approaching them. However, the court, according to Voronina, only ordered the interrogations of the mother and child in the presence of forensic experts. “They didn’t even do a medical examination, although my daughter complained of pain,” says the Russian woman.

Rebecca was interrogated twice in a room with a Gesell mirror visible from one side.

“During the first interrogation, she told the same thing she told the psychologist.

When the interrogation was over, they told me, they say, my daughter is a hero, that she was not frightened, - recalls Daria.

- The daughter went to the second interrogation with her father: he redrawn our schedule so that on that day it was his turn to be with the child.

There, Rebecca again told what her father had done to her, moreover, she asked psychologists to protect her from her dad.

She was afraid that he would hear everything from the other side of the mirror.

But the staff convinced her that everything would be fine.

My daughter returned home with bruises under her eye and on her legs.

She said her father beat her. "

Detailed evidence

In May 2020, a criminal case was opened against Rebecca's father on suspicion of sexualized abuse of his own daughter. The day after Daria testified in court, the ex-husband, according to her, tried to kidnap their daughter from the car, which ended in a physical confrontation between him and Voronina. The court interpreted this as an attack, and in July 2020, a second criminal case was opened against Rebecca's father under the article "Gender Violence". As a result, the court decided that the former spouse had no right to come closer than a kilometer to Daria, and a new mode of communication with the father was established for the child: twice a month at the family meeting point.

However, this did not stop her ex-husband, the Russian woman continues.

According to Daria, at his request, the city social service prepared a report in which a social assistant, who did not personally know the child and who had never visited the mother and child's home, claimed that Voronina was turning her daughter against her father in order to separate them.

When at the meeting point, when trying to force Rebecca to see her father, the girl said that she did not want to communicate with dad, the meeting point staff stated that due to the "bad influence of the mother" the child developed "parental alienation syndrome."

Parental alienation syndrome is a concept that has been recognized as unscientific in a number of countries in recent years, and is officially banned in Spain, Voronina emphasizes, since its use endangers the lives of children who are potentially abused by biological fathers.

In December 2020, Daria's ex-husband challenged the ban on approaching her.

Moreover, despite the two criminal cases opened against the girl's father, the court established a compulsory regime of meetings with Rebecca, a week after a week.

The time that her daughter lived with her father, Daria calls hell.

After additional medical examinations, which showed that the girl may have again become subjected to sexualized violence in her father's house, and the daughter's stories during interrogation in March 2021, the court issued a new order prohibiting the man from approaching Rebecca and Daria - the document was valid until September 10 ...

On August 8, Voronina went to Russia with her daughter. They had already bought a return flight to Spain in time for school after school holidays. Daria briefly left for Spain on work business, and when she returned to Russia for her daughter, the Spanish police began to call her with the statement that her ex-husband accused her of kidnapping her. Moreover, being under the action of a non-approach order, he personally came to Daria's home and applied to a site located less than a kilometer away, that is, he actually violated the terms of the order. However, this did not stop the police from accepting such a statement. Publications about the alleged missing girl also appeared in the Spanish media. So Daria realized that the way to Spain was ordered for him and her daughter.

“I don't feel protected. For example, Interpol is persistently calling my relatives and asking about my whereabouts. But, in spite of everything, the child and I are better here. We are at home, houses and walls help. We go to therapy, because what happened left a mark for the rest of our lives, ”says Daria.

Lawyer Yuri Ivanov, whom Daria turned to while in Russia, has already prepared a statement to the Investigative Committee.

“We want to protect the child in Russia as much as possible,” he said.

- We will seek to initiate a criminal case and take action against the offender.

This is an encroachment on the sexual freedom of a girl's personality in Spain.

Daria has collected more than detailed and detailed evidence on this matter: the conclusion of a psychologist, according to which the child is not inclined to fantasize or deceive;

the child says completely obvious things that due to his age he could not come up with or learn from some third-party sources. "

"The machine that makes children"

Anna Kuznetsova (name and surname changed. -

) has been living and working in Spain for the past 20 years. She has three children: a 19-year-old daughter from her first marriage, six-year-old Sophia and three-year-old Alma (names have been changed -

). Sofia and Alma were born to a Spaniard whom Anna married in 2017. Sofia has two citizenships, Russian and Spanish, Alma has none, since each of the parents did not want their youngest daughter to become a citizen of only one - foreign - country.

“At first everything was great with us, we traveled a lot, our business was developing.

When their first daughter was born, naturally, they began to spend more time at home.

From that moment on, constant insults and humiliation began in the presence of children.

The situation was complicated by the fact that I was financially dependent on my husband, as I worked for him, ”says the Russian woman.

For the first time, her husband raised his hand against Anna on June 22, 2019, when they drove to the hospital with Alma.

“He slapped me in the face, and when we went down in the elevator, he started hitting me on the head, although I had a child in my arms.

In the car he said: “Finally I beat you, I feel like a man,” the Russian woman recalls with a shudder.

She filed an application, but at the trial did not testify against her husband, fearing that he would take her youngest daughter.

The fact is that a surrogate mother gave birth to Alma, and according to Spanish law, Anna must adopt her daughter, while the biological father has all rights to the child from the moment of his birth.

In November 2019, the husband beat Anna for the second time.

This time, the Russian woman also failed to defend her rights in court: she was warned that since she defended herself and bit her husband, she would also be punished.

As a result, the parents signed an agreement according to which the children live with their mother, the father pays alimony, rents an apartment for them and meets with his daughters every day for two hours and two days off a month.

However, after another weekend, Alma's father did not return home, and soon stopped paying for the rented apartment.

“The separation from Alma was a big disaster.

Sofia woke up at night in tears, did not want to communicate with anyone, terribly missed her sister.

It’s scary to describe what happened to me, ”Kuznetsova recalls.

When four months have passed since Anna saw her youngest daughter for the last time, she signed a new agreement with her husband, according to which he kept Alma with him, the mother lived with Sofia, and on weekends the sisters would be with either their father or their mother. ...

However, the subsequent court decided to keep both girls with their father.

At mom's, children can only sleep two days off a month.

In addition, Anna now pays € 240 per month in child support.

“The court order says: my statements that the child was separated from his mother and sister are untenable.

At the same time, without me, the child is not left with his father, but with the nanny or his elderly parents, ”says Kuznetsova.

On September 28, 2021, Anna and her husband divorced.

Now Anna is preparing documents for filing an appeal with the constitutional court.

“I want us to live in Russia, so that my children come back to me,” she says.

- The Spanish system did not fair to me, it just put me on the level of a machine that produces children.

Like, she gave birth, went out, raised, and then they will cope without my participation.

This is a system where a woman is trying to be razed to the ground. "

“I would advise women, first of all, to be economically wealthy.

In my situation, it’s too late to do something.

Therefore, if you see that the situation is developing like this, run, girls, run home.

Here in Spain you cannot achieve justice, ”adds Anna.

"An obvious trap"

Irina Vasilyeva (surname has been changed. -

) married a Spanish citizen in 2012.

Their marriage was not happy for long.

“When we met, the person seemed to me adequate, loving children, aimed at creating a family.

But after the wedding, I began to notice that he began to have bouts of aggression.

The result of such attacks was usually the destruction of the house.

After such states, he slept off, and when he opened his eyes and saw the devastation, he asked in surprise what had happened.

He didn’t believe that he could do it, ”she says.

Irina tried to fix everything, on her initiative the spouses went to a family psychologist, but there was no result.

In 2014, a Russian woman became pregnant, and when she was five months old, her husband beat her: “The moment you fly into the corner, you understand that you will never return to this person.

But the day before I went with him for an ultrasound scan and he saw his child! "

Irina was admitted to the hospital with a suspected fracture, and later she was transferred to a crisis center for women.

At the sixth month of pregnancy, she returned to Russia, where she gave birth to a son.

The boy received Russian citizenship, he was given a Russian name.

Soon after the birth of the child, Spanish relatives began to persuade Irina to return to see the baby.

“It was a big mistake.

Nobody came to get acquainted with the grandson.

Everything was done to ensure that a court order was issued banning the child from leaving Spain until his 18th birthday.

An obvious trap into which I stupidly fell, "explains the interlocutor of RT.

Irina divorced her husband in 2016.

The father, by court order, could see his son several times a week.

The boy's mother began to notice how her son's behavior had changed: he seemed to withdraw into himself, but at the same time began to scream at night.

“When I reported this at the meeting point, I was advised to contact the police, as they cannot help.

Later, on the basis of the information provided to the court and the psychologist's reports about the child, where it was a question of possible sexualized violence, the court canceled the child's overnight stay with his father, ”Vasilyeva says.

The attempts of the Russian woman to find out what happened between the father and the child were unsuccessful.

According to her, the staff of the meeting center only insisted that the son should come to his father happy and with a smile, and if this does not happen, they will complain to Irina that she is turning the boy against the parent.

At the same time, after the next meeting, says Vasilyeva, the child was returned with damage to the ligaments of the hand.

"Punished for Russian"

In the winter of 2021, the meeting center employees handed the boy over to his father, and he, without warning, took his son to Mallorca, where his parents lived, Irina continues.

The court decision, according to which the ex-spouse had the right to do so, was sent to the Russian woman retroactively.

For eight months, the son talked to his mother only on the phone, the woman is upset: “Before that, my father sent me a video of my son sitting and playing.

And when I managed to get me to call my son, he took the phone and hid under the bed so that no one could hear him.

This is the only way he can talk to me, because he was punished for the Russian language, and we never spoke Spanish.

Calls were always on speakerphone in the presence of all family members.

As soon as I tried to explain something to him, the call was immediately interrupted.

I still don't know what he thinks, because since that moment I have never been able to talk to him personally. "

In July 2021, the court ruled that Irina could see her son at the meeting point, in the presence of social workers and psychologists.

The first time a Russian woman saw and hugged her son on September 11.

The boy, according to his mother, was scared and confused.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Russian woman can only meet with a child for one hour every 15 days.

She flies from Alicante, where she now lives and works, to Mallorca specifically for the sake of meeting her son.

It is forbidden to speak in Russian at the meeting point, only in Spanish.

At the same time, Irina has no right to talk with her son about what happened, about what happened when they lived together: only about food, school and football, which the boy is engaged in.

His father forbids him to communicate with his Russian grandmother: Irina says that this is because she does not know Spanish.

Irina tried different ways to get her son back.

At the same time, for the publication of the petition on the Change.org website, the ex-husband's side accused Vasilyeva of asking for help from Russia.

"Diplomats in touch"

The Russian Embassy in Spain has been notified of the stories of underage citizens of the Russian Federation on the territory of the kingdom.

“In accordance with the law“ On personal data ”, the details of the work carried out are not subject to coverage.

It is worth noting, however, that our diplomats are in constant direct contact with the applicants, we are interacting with the competent authorities of Spain and other participants in the proceedings, "the embassy replied to RT's request.

According to the head of the "Alternative" movement Oleg Melnikov, in Europe, guardianship authorities are aimed at keeping a child in their country, even if he is not a citizen of the state.

At the same time, the situation of Russian women, as a rule, is complicated by the fact that many of them are financially dependent on their husbands.

“If they lived with their husband, then they need to look for new housing, and for this they need to have or look for work.

Legal services are very expensive, in Europe there are few charitable foundations that help in such situations.

Moreover, in Northern Europe, for example, there are funds that are actually engaged in weaning children from mothers for a fee, and women from the post-Soviet space are the most vulnerable in this regard, "he explained to RT.