Call to Do More About Domestic Violence
Staff Writer
American Bree Schuette, 29, who is fighting against her Russian husband for the custody of their daughter Veronika, aged four, and says he abused her, has said Russia needs to change its attitudes to and laws on domestic violence. "In Russia, [domestic violence] has to get to the last point before the police and other official organs responsible for helping the victims finally react," Schuette said Monday at a news conference on family violence. On the night of Feb. 8, Schuette fled from her husband's St. Petersburg home in her pajamas after "particularly severe physical abuse." But she had suffered regular violence over several years, she said. On Feb. 8, her spouse "hit her on her head, her body, twisted her arms and was strangling her," she said. She went straight to a police station, where she was told her plight was "a problem she should deal with herself at home." At her request, city prosecutors have since launched a lawsuit based on her allegations. Asked to comment, her husband Mikhail Slobodkin, 33, said he would not do so before court hearings on the custody of Veronika begin on Oct. 27. Yury Luchinsky, Slobodkin's lawyer, said Monday in a telephone interview that he was "unsure of Schuette's mental health." Luchinsky said that the only use of violence Slobodkin had admitted to was that on Feb. 8 he abused Schuette, but Slobodkin said it was only once and was not as vicious as his wife claims. Luchinksy said Slobodkin did not want to surrender custody of Veronika to her mother, "taking into account her behavior and psychological condition." According to statistics, a woman is killed by domestic violence in Russia every 40 minutes. Every day 36,000 women are beaten by their husbands or partners. Natalya Khodyreva, head of St. Petersburg's Women's Crisis Center, said Monday that 300,000 Russians suffer from regular domestic violence. "The number of Russian women who have suffered from domestic violence exceeds the number of people who have suffered from terrorist attacks," Khodyreva said. Schuette said that despite her marriage being violent and abusive, with the violence getting worse in the last four years in Russia, she could not get the help she needed. "All through that time police, doctors, colleagues and friends were unable or unwilling to discuss it," she said. "As a victim of domestic violence I can say that it remains a very big problem in Russia." Schuette met Slobodkin in her homeland at Boston University where they both studied economics. Six months after the relationship began, Slobodkin began abusing her sexually, verbally, and physically, she said. However, Schuette remained in the relationship. In January 2000, Schuette gave birth in the U.S. to Veronika. When Veronika was eight months old Slobodkin suggested that the family go for a short visit to his home city of St. Petersburg. While en route to Russia, Slobodkin told Schuette that he would not allow her to return home, and that they would stay to live in Russia, she said. In 2001, Schuette gave birth to the couple's second child - a son named Valery. The same year the couple got officially married. However, the boy died aged one year and three months. Slobodkin did not work and Schuette, who worked as an English-language teacher, was the family breadwinner, she said. She suffered medical problems as a result of the abuse, she added. After fleeing her husband she made several attempts to leave Russia with her daughter. However, she couldn't take the child out of the country without Slobodkin's permission. Therefore Schuette fled Russia with the help of the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg and returned in August to start a legal battle for Veronika's custody. On Sept. 28 the police department of the city's Vyborg district initiated a criminal case against Slobodkin under articles 115, 116, 119 of the Criminal Code. Those articles cover light body injuries, beatings, and threatening to kill. At the same time Slobodkin brought a civil custody case at the Vyborg district court for divorce, asking the court to decide where Veronika's should live, and demanding alimony from his wife, Schuette said. Marina Sidorchuk, Schuette's lawyer from JurConsult International law firm, said she and Schuette have been trying to get Slobodkin to agree to let Schuette meet Veronika sometimes, but he has refused. Schuette said her husband said she would try to kidnap the girl. "It's nonsense," she said. "Because if I was planning to do so, I wouldn't be having all these legal proceedings." Participants in the news conference, who shared their knowledge of domestic violence in Russia, are taking part in a conference on the issue that runs until Wednesday. One of the aims of the conference is to raise public awareness of domestic violence, they said. Alexander Gogolkin, head of the Russian movement of Men of the 21st Century, said Russia's problems of domestic violence often have to do with the national patriarchal tradition, where a man is taught from his childhood to be in control of everything.
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