The blow hits Kateryna Menschikowa in the stomach. She takes a breath, tries to get her cell phone, which Igor has snatched from her hand. He grabs them. Fists patter on her face once, twice, three times. How many times, she can not say. She only looks at her two children, three years and two years old. They cry. As.
"Go," shouts Menshikova, "get out." But Igor hits her again. Then her ex-husband takes the phone she was using to film how he threatens her. He leaves the apartment. At last.
When Menschikowa talks on the phone about how her ex-husband broke into the home and beat her up, she is not talking about the actual date, September 16, 2019, but only about the "day of the beatings". The 25-year-old fashion designer lives in Kstowo, a city with 68,000 inhabitants, 400 kilometers east of Moscow.
Menschikowa speaks in short sentences, deliberate and sober, as if trying to keep her feelings away from her. She searches for words, breathes audibly into the phone: "I was so scared that he would come back. Strike again."
Kateryna Menschikowa
Kateryna Menschikowa: "I was so scared"
She calls the police and ambulance at a neighbor's house, and later comes an official who is responsible for children's affairs. She doesn't want Igor to approach her and the little ones, she says. "There is no such law," say the officials.
Bill number 43
To date, Russia has no law protecting women and children against domestic violence. According to women’s rights activists, there have been 42 attempts to introduce a law into parliament in the past ten years. All failed. Now attempt number 43 is underway, a new draft has just been published.
Women's rights activists say that they have little in common with protecting women and children. The legal text is formulated in such a way that it has significant shortcomings: First, according to the current version, physical violence does not fall under the scope of domestic violence. On the other hand, partners who live together without a marriage license are not protected as much as spouses.
Vladimir Gerd / TASS / picture alliance
Women's rights activist Aljona Popowa before the Duma 2017: "When he hits, he loves - there are laws against domestic violence in 143 countries", says the poster
The draft law goes far too far, say representatives of the Orthodox Church and arch conservatives. The planned project is destroying family life and "traditional spiritual and moral values".
By the end of last Sunday's deadline, thousands of amendments had been received in Parliament and are now to be examined and "balanced". What that means is unclear. Prime Minister Dimitrij Medwedew now speaks of a problem of violence in families. He just doesn't say how the government wants to react. Once again there is a struggle for social sovereignty in Russia - and the ultra-conservatives are waging it by all means.
Alleged enemies of the nation
Women's rights activists like Aljona Popowa, who has been campaigning for an effective law for years, receive threats up to and including murder. "They point to us, call us enemies of the nation. We are depicted on posters as those who have to be shot."
She will continue to fight, Popowa says. Dealing with violence makes the lawyer angry. When Napoleon researcher Oleg Sokolow, for example, shoots his partner and student Anastasia Yeshchenko in November, dismembered her body and then shows part of his interrogation on state television, in which he confesses remorse. Or the three sisters Chatschaturjan, who were abused and beaten for years by their father until they stab him because they no longer knew what to do and could now be charged with murder. "This shows the attitude of our leadership," says Popowa, "she is always on the side of the perpetrators and is even looking for reasons to punish the women."
ITAR-TASS / imago images
Angelina (front) and Krestina Chatschaturjan (back) in court: They face up to 20 years in prison if they are charged with murder
High number of unreported cases
Kateryna Menschikowa recently made public what her former husband did to her. For a long time she only talked about it to her best friend. Under #tyneodna - You are not alone and #Janechotelaumerat - I do not want to die, hashtags, under which Russian women draw attention to their fates, she wrote about it on Instagram. "I'm actually rather closed. But that was necessary, it is not right to remain silent. We need protection."
Menschikowa did not get it, although she tries to keep her distance. After three years of marriage, she moves out of their shared apartment in 2018. Her husband was constantly drunk and he refused all offers of help. She kept trying to talk to him about why he was drinking. "Once he punched his fist past my head against the wall." Her husband is chasing her. He even watches her on the bus to work, taunting her as a prostitute. None of the passengers help her, she escapes from the bus, runs until she can shake it off. She will divorce in August 2019. He threatens her again. She tries to report him again. There are no traces, say police officers.
It is difficult to quantify domestic violence in Russia, not only because the police often refuse to accept reports, many victims are ashamed. The number of unreported cases is high, but only the numbers that are known make you think:
- According to the Interior Ministry, 40 percent of violent crimes occur at home.
- Every year, thousands of women are killed by relatives, around 12,000 to 14,000 out of a population of 145 million, according to official figures, but which date from five years ago. For comparison: In the United States, up to 1,800 women die each year from the violence of their neighbors; more than twice as many people live there as in Russia. In Germany, 122 women were killed last year, with around 83 million residents.
- 79 percent of all women convicted of murder in Russia resisted an investigation by the Kremlin-critical online portal Mediazona against violent male relatives.
She doesn't leave the apartment for a month
For a long time you looked away in Russia. It's none of our business, you can still hear it today. Or: "If he hits you, he loves you". Kateryna Menschikowa laughs briefly when she hears the Russian proverb, it sounds bitter: "What nonsense." Most recently, women in particular took to the streets to demonstrate for their rights. "It is enough," said posters. Young people in particular reject domestic violence.
After Igor beat her up in September, Menshikova doesn't leave the house for a month. "I always thought he was waiting for me again." After all, her ex-husband is sentenced afterwards - to social work, 120 hours. Domestic violence has only been considered an administrative offense for two years. Since then, fewer acts have been recorded.
"It hurts me a lot that my children had to witness that he hit me," Menschikowa says. Her son Kostja is under medical treatment, her daughter Lilija is doing well so far. Menschikowa lives with the children in her father's apartment. Her ex-husband still lives in the apartment, even if she pays the mortgage.
Menschikowa would like to get away from little Kstowo. She no longer wants to meet Igor.
