Beaten Russian woman Gracheva was able to sue her husband after three and a half years

I met Svetlana Gracheva in the summer of 2020. She didn’t have a face then. Exhausted, tearful, with an orthosis on her left crippled arm.

The famous Margarita Gracheva, who lost her brushes through the fault of her ex-husband – he took his ex-wife into the forest and chopped them off with an ax – has become a symbol of the struggle of Russian women against domestic violence. Her namesake, Svetlana Gracheva, seems to be more fortunate: her limbs are in place, but a tendon is torn off on her left arm, a metal structure will stand all her life, because of nerves and stress, she was diagnosed with diabetes. “I lived on painkillers for two years, of course, all this affected my health,” she says.

On the audio recording, which the victim provided in court, Svetlana screams to her husband that she is afraid to live with him: “You take a knife and come into my room with a knife. What have you sunk to! You always threaten me. You threatened me yesterday that you would cut off my head. How can I sleep with you at all? I’m already afraid to sleep with you … You are ready to kill a person – for what?

Blessed, the head of the middle management of a large oil company, without refuting anything Svetlana said, quietly answers the recording: “Because you drove me …”

The case was not filed with the police until the very end. The police confiscated and immediately lost Svetlana’s medical card from the clinic. They didn’t do a medical examination. And when it was nevertheless done, they did not indicate the degree of harm, without which it was impossible to initiate a criminal offence.

They tried to send the girl to a psychiatric hospital, for examination – this has never happened before, so that the victim, who had never been registered anywhere, was decided to check for sanity. And with what diagnosis she could come out of there – such precedents are already known. Husbands recognize objectionable wives as mentally ill – and that’s all, write wasted.

The first examination was made only seven months later. The second one – ten months later: “expert opinion dated 09.07.2020 No. 2034107429”, according to the conclusions of which “Gracheva S.V. did not have visible injuries (wounds, abrasions, bruises) during the forensic medical examination conducted on 07.09.2020 “.

If Svetlana was beaten in September 2019, and one of the forensic examinations is dated July 9, 2020, then what kind of bruises and bruises can be found after so much time?

According to the victim, she was denied a criminal case for the first time in September of the same 2019. And they refused 11 more times. And she stubbornly again and again sought recognition of her innocence.

In April 2021, Svetlana Gracheva finally got a personal appointment with Grigory Radionov, Prosecutor of the Northern Administrative District of Moscow. “I was told that he is the last one who can help. Looks: a woman is sitting, all drooping. He took personal control of the case and was amazed that with such injuries, I could not get a criminal case initiated.”

In the end, it was possible to initiate a case just a week before the statute of limitations expired on August 31, 2021. The suspect pleaded not guilty. “I didn’t do anything to her,” he said.

I looked at Oleg Grachev in court. A very decent looking young man, in an expensive suit, surrounded entirely by women, apparently ready to defend him to the last – an aunt, a sister, a new girlfriend, some old girlfriends – they did not let him say a word, and although they stated exclusively positive characteristics, but his probable latent aggression towards women in general was strongly felt.

“I don’t admit my guilt,” the defendant categorically repeated.

“Oleg, how could you marry such a village,” his new girlfriend said loudly in front of everyone.

The new cohabitant testified that they live in perfect harmony. Despite the fact that Grachev’s first wife, who now lives in America, said honestly on one of the talk shows: she was afraid, she raised her hand.

“What I myself have only encountered during the investigation. Threats, harassment, nasty things were written on the Internet, mail was hacked … I was very scared, to be honest. Yes, it’s still scary. Because I don’t know what to expect from him,” says Svetlana Gracheva.

The only advice she gives to anyone who finds herself in a similar situation is: “Do not forgive and do not give up. When he hit me for the first time, I also forgave. And that was my mistake. Because this is how domestic tyrants feel their impunity and unbelt.

Due to the fact that the case was initiated too late, the statute of limitations had already passed – Grachev did not face real punishment, but he could not avoid a criminal record even without rehabilitating grounds.

“The accused under Part 1 of Article 112 “Intentional infliction of medium-gravity bodily harm”… found guilty and sentenced to restriction of freedom for a period of 6 months with the establishment of restrictions… until the verdict comes into force, leave the preventive measure in the form of a written undertaking not to leave the place unchanged and proper conduct.”

The “proper behavior” of the defendant was expressed in the fact that when a TV journalist approached him immediately after the trial with a request for comment, he literally attacked her, pulled out the phone, which at first, it is possible, he wanted to trample, and then threw it into the snow, the girl herself was hit women’s bag. We were standing nearby with a support group. When the reporter returned, she was not wearing a face. It really came as a shock to everyone. If a person behaves this way immediately after the verdict is passed, what can we expect from him in the future?

“And it is right that the state has seen and realized this problem and is trying to help victims of domestic violence. More recently, only 3% of such cases reached the court. The women couldn’t resist. And the tyrants felt their impunity. I am grateful to the prosecutor’s office for supporting my faith in justice and the rule of law, even when I was completely desperate.”

It’s really great that women in our country are finally getting convictions for domestic violence, not only without arms or already lying in a coffin.