Lawyer Anastasia Starchenkova, acquitted of attempted murder, is fighting for the right to see her daughter, who was taken by her ex-husband while the investigation was ongoing.
How did you manage to prove your own innocence, can a child forget his mother in less than a year, and why did she owe millions of rubles to her ex-wife, Anastasia told RT.
"You can't save your family"
When and how did you meet your husband?
- We met Vadim in 2007 in the subway, an unremarkable story.
Two years later we got married, and in 2013 our daughter Sophia was born.
Over time, my husband began to raise his hand against me - as a “memory” of this, I had two broken ribs, although at that time I did not declare this anywhere.
He began to behave aggressively not only towards me, but also towards his daughter: he was annoyed that his daughter was crying, it prevented him from resting after work, and after all, children at that age have both teeth and colic.
I realized that it would not be possible to save a family in such a situation, and in 2016, when Sophia was a little over two years old, we divorced.
After that, Vadim sued for the division of property.
In the statement of claim, he prescribed spoons, forks, household appliances, fur coats, a tablet, a slow cooker, a bread machine, even my pectoral cross.
For my part, I did not say anything, it seemed petty to me.
We sued for a year, as a result, I owed my ex-husband 1.3 million rubles.
After that, I filed for alimony, but they began to be written off to pay off my debt.
I thought it was unfair to my daughter.
She does not have to bear financial obligations for her parents.
As a result, I closed all accounts and the money began to accumulate in a separate account.
A fairly large amount has accumulated - about five million rubles.
- After the divorce, did the husband express a desire to communicate with his daughter?
- During the trials, Vadim was not interested in the child.
After I closed the accounts, he sent two SMS a year - New Year's greetings and my daughter's birthday.
Sophia, in turn, knew that she had a dad, I honestly described the whole situation to her, naturally, in a smoothed version.
— What happened next?
- Until 2017, my husband tried to force me to pay him these 1.3 million. Dubious personalities came to my office, pierced the wheels of the car, called at night, told me to "solve the issue."
For all these facts, I filed statements with the police, but they remained unanswered: no corpus delicti was found.
After 2017, Vadim stopped bothering me.
I have not yet paid the amount in full, because the writ of execution was closed due to the impossibility of collecting when I was in a pre-trial detention center.
But I am a law-abiding person and will repay it in the future.
"Death was staged"
- Tell us how you were accused of a crime that you did not commit?
- On December 18, 2020, I was detained by the MID officers near the child's school and charged with organizing an attempted murder of my ex-husband.
To say I was shocked is an understatement.
This is a real tragedy: I have a cancer-stricken mother, a minor child, what will happen to them, how will they exist without me?
As it turned out, in December 2020, Vadim applied to the authorities with a statement that I had organized an assassination attempt on him.
Further, under the supervision of law enforcement agencies, an action "provocation of a crime" was carried out.
The husband was taken to some place where his death was staged.
After that, photos were sent to a person who allegedly was a performer.
He then agreed to hand over the money and was detained.
And he said during the interrogation that I was the customer of the crime.
© Photo from the personal archive
I knew this person, but there were no accounts for each other.
It was proved in court that he communicated with my ex-husband and that he and Vadim had unresolved financial issues.
The ex-husband went to every meeting and said that I should be imprisoned.
The court sentenced the "executor" to six years in a strict regime colony.
His accusations of allegedly organizing a crime against me were not confirmed by anything else.
On the contrary, there was evidence that that man was the one who ordered the assassination, and he was trying to shift the blame on me in order to mitigate his punishment.
- How long were you under arrest?
I spent a year in jail.
They didn’t give me dates or calls, only rare censored e-mails were allowed.
As for the conditions of detention, everything was within the framework of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and the internal regulations of such institutions.
Strict discipline, escort, daily searches twice a day.
Throughout the year, they actively tried to extract confessions from me in various ways.
But none of them worked because I wasn't about to confess to a crime I didn't commit.
On December 20, 2021, the jury fully acquitted me with the right to rehabilitation.
They saw that I was not only innocent, but also not involved in this crime.
I was released from the courtroom.
On December 27, the court delivered an acquittal, affirming the jury's verdict.
I intend to file for compensation.
"I forgot my relatives"
- When you were released, it turned out that the daughter now lives with her father. How did it happen?
- On January 20, 2021, Vadim took Sofia to him - I do not exclude that this was done to force me to confess.
He arrived at the school in the middle of the day, told the teachers that he was taking his daughter allegedly on an excursion, after which he would return the child to his relatives - for the last 7.5 years we lived with my parents in a country cottage.
The ex-husband did not bring his daughter back, and since then she has been with him.
While I was in the pre-trial detention center, my parents and sister tried to see the child, but Vadim did not allow the meetings and wrote to me that he was filing a claim for alimony.
He insisted that I refuse in his favor from those 5 million that were on the account.
But I didn't agree with that.
- In the end, did your relatives manage to get a meeting?
- On September 1, they came to the festive line, but the child did not recognize them, refused to communicate with them.
How can you not recognize the people with whom you live for more than seven years is a big question for me.
© Photo from the personal archive
When I was released, I began to demand that Vadim meet my daughter.
He ignored calls, blocked me on social networks, but after the meeting on December 27, my lawyer managed to persuade him.
After all, I am not deprived of parental rights and have the right to see and participate in her life in the same way as he does.
- How was the meeting?
- He assigned her to a cafe in Krasnogorsk.
I was afraid of a provocation, so I took my sister and a lawyer with me, they were sitting at another table.
The worst thing is that my daughter did not recognize me. She began to say that she loves her mother, but I do not look like her. Although I haven't changed in a year. Well, it cannot be that not a small child for 10 months forgets his entire family! I have several possible explanations for what happened. First, they could show her not my photos and say that this is my mother. Sophia said at the meeting that she saw a picture where I was on the bridge, but I don’t remember this. The second version - the daughter was set up that this is such a game, you don’t have to recognize your mother, it will be better for everyone. The third option is psychotropic drugs. Sophia behaved inappropriately, completely unlike herself. Disinhibited, she did not sit still, suddenly a tantrum began, she cried and said that she loved her dad.
I began to remind her of the details of our past life, that she used to do vocals, played tennis, was a very active girl.
She asked what she was doing now.
The daughter answered that she and her father and grandmother played computer games every day until ten in the evening.
After that, I asked my husband about the woman with whom he lived for some time.
The daughter said that she treated her rather rudely, screamed and used physical force.
To which Vadim became visibly nervous and began to interfere with my conversation with Sophia.
50 minutes into the meeting, the daughter said she wanted to sleep.
I don’t want to cause psychological trauma to the child and forcefully hold her near me, so I asked her to button up her jacket, kissed her on the cheek.
At this time, Vadim grabbed my phone and saw that there was a dictaphone recording.
He began to try to remove it, I asked to return the phone, to which the ex-husband began to push and kick my sister and me, then in front of the child he pushed me so that I hit the back of my head hard - until a concussion, threw the phone on the floor and it crashed.
My sister and I filmed the beatings and wrote statements to the Krasnogorsk police department on the fact of bodily injuries and damage to property.
But so far no one has contacted us.
Since December 27, I have not seen the child again.
On New Year's Eve, my sister and I came to my husband's house, bought gifts, but he said that I could leave them at the concierge.
True, then he allowed to transfer gifts through his father.
He came down, filmed us on camera and said that these were gifts for the investigator.
I still don't understand what those words meant.
"Breaking All Rules"
- Have you applied to the court to legalize meetings with a child?
- Yes, this case is already in court, we are waiting for an appeal from October 2021.
This process deals with the order of my meetings with the child and the alimony that I have to pay to my husband.
The court made an unprecedented decision, which not every single mother can boast of.
I have to pay him alimony in the amount of 3.6 million rubles for the year.
In addition, the court awarded him the amount that he will spend in his needs for the rest and entertainment of the child.
This is a violation of all norms of substantive law.
We will, of course, appeal this decision.
Moreover, 3.6 million should be paid from those accumulated alimony, which is also a gross violation of the law, because alimony cannot be used in any other way than on a child by the party to whom they were paid.
When the meeting will be scheduled is unknown.
But after it, we will declare a psychological and psychiatric examination for the child.
- Did your parents try to get meetings with their granddaughter through the courts?
— Since March 2021, but still no decision.
My grandmother was assigned a psychological and psychiatric examination at the request of my ex-husband.
The case is suspended.
She was even asked questions - what benefits are you pursuing in order to achieve meetings with your granddaughter.
She has one answer - communication.
What would be the benefit here?
Guardianship only shrug.
The maximum that they can do is to do a home inspection.
In custody, they can’t even tell if she attends school.
At the meeting, the daughter said that her father forbade her to answer this question.
- What are you going to do next?
- At the moment, appeals have been written to the guardianship authorities of the city of Krasnogorsk, to the prosecutor's office, to the reception of the President of the Russian Federation.
They did a good job there and they sent my request to all the authorities that are relevant to this situation, where they responded quickly enough.
I also wrote a statement to the police from my sister and me on the fact of beatings and damage to property.
I am waiting for answers and do not give up hope that he will come to his senses.
By some miracle, the broken phone kept a record from a meeting with my daughter, which ends with the sound of him beating me and my sister.
Now we are making a transcript of it for the court.
I also intend to achieve punishment for my ex-husband under article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (slander) after the entry into force of the court's verdict of not guilty.