Conflict aside: an entire village in Stavropol lives in fear of one family
In the village of Etoka near Stavropol, a conflict between a local family with many children and other residents has been going on for about 10 years. Villagers complain en masse to the police and the district administration, accusing the Alekhin couple and their children of threats and beatings. The statements allege that once the head of the family opened fire in the street, and his wife beat a pregnant woman and lost her child. Parents are afraid to let their children go to school, claiming that one of the couple's daughters goes there with a knife, said the director of the educational institution. The Interior Ministry refuses to initiate criminal proceedings, citing the lack of corpus delicti. But Lyudmila Alyokhina also regularly reports her neighbors to the police, accusing them of slander. What are the reasons for the multi-year conflict and how neighbors to resolve the contradictions legally, "Izvestia" examined.
The beginning of the conflict in Etok
Almost 10 years stretches neighbor conflict in the village of Etoka in the Predgorny district of Stavropol Krai. Almost every week there are scandals in the local streets, which sometimes escalate into fights and even shooting. Residents of the village have written dozens of statements to the police against members of the Alekhin family. Most of the complaints are about violence and threats, according to the materials sent to the Interior Ministry, which were reviewed by Izvestia.
About 3,000 people live in the village. The Alyokhin family moved there in 2012. Lyudmila and Igor settled in a small one-story house and planted a vegetable garden on the plot. The couple has seven children, two with disabilities.
Lyudmila Alekhina with children
For four years, relations with neighbors were neutral. The problems began in 2016: the Alyokhins' neighbor, Gayana Aramyan, said that Lyudmila started throwing stones at her house, broke two windows, and damaged the roof.
- I called the police and wrote statements, hired a lawyer, provided camera footage and filed a lawsuit to get compensation," the villager said.
In 2019, the court partially satisfied the claims, recognizing the fact of damage to the roof, follows from the ruling. Lyudmila Alekhina was obliged to pay 80 thousand rubles.
According to Gayana Aramyan, she never received the money, and her property continues to spoil to this day - they regularly throw garbage and food waste on the plot, break the fence. The woman also regularly finds carcasses of dead animals on the plot: birds, pigs, dogs. But the woman did not provide Izvestia with evidence that this is the work of neighbors.
A statement on the Alyokhins was also written by Gayana's relative Alexandra Vartanyan. She said that in 2022 their cow entered the territory of the Alyokhin family, and when she knocked on the neighbor, she attacked her with fists. At that time Alexandra was pregnant after IVF. After that, her husband came to the neighbors, but he was hit with a shovel, said Alexandra Vartanyan.
- I was hit on my back and stomach. When I returned home, I was bleeding," Alexandra recalled. - I was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where the doctors informed the police about the incident, but the officers did not even come.
Alexandra Vartanian (foreground) claims to have been victimized by the Alyokhin family
The doctors' report stated that the patient was admitted with "a complaint of pulling pains and bleeding". As a result, the woman had a miscarriage. In the response of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the written statement says that the case will not be initiated - there is no corpus delicti.
In 2024, a police report on the Alyokhins was written by Nadezhda Sulimenko, a resident of the settlement, who reported that her son had been shot with a traumatic weapon.
- He came to the Alyokhins' house to report that their children were hurting his brothers. However, the father of the family, Igor, started shooting with a traumatic weapon," the woman claimed.
The case on her statement, she said, was not initiated.
Izvestia has a video of the conflict at the Alyokhins' home. A shot is indeed heard on it. And one of the neighbors accuses the family: "These are these ... are chasing my little ones around the school with knives. They shouted at me from behind the fence, both of them came out drunk, inadequate, throwing a shovel at me. This one came at me with a knife."
In response, from behind the fence, the head of the family says: "Look how many stones ... We didn't throw stones at him, we fought back - we beat the stones off with a shovel".
Lyudmila Alyokhina also categorically denied all accusations against her family, noting that she herself had repeatedly written statements to law enforcement agencies. Several villagers told Izvestia that they often learn about these statements from letters from the Ministry of Internal Affairs - they receive messages that criminal proceedings against them have been denied.
According to Lyudmila Alyokhina, local residents "threw stones and almost killed her husband," exploded a firecracker near her child, which seriously injured his leg, and insulted members of her family.
- They themselves attacked my family and traumatized my son," she said. - They disliked me from the moment I arrived and constantly demanded that I vacate the house.
In the Network can also be found a video from 2021, where Alyokhina records her children's appeal to the President. One of them, Joseph, says: "Vladimir Vladimirovich, we appeal to you to help us go to school normally." The children claim that they are beaten at school: "They shout: 'Go away, you don't belong here.'" Alyokhina herself says in voice-over that the director is "pushing the children out of the school" because the family does not hand over money "for coolers, antiseptics".
The Alyokhin children have recorded an appeal to the president
The woman did not provide materials directly confirming her words, neither in the video nor in her conversation with Izvestia.
Children's fears
Neighbors and school authorities have a completely different version of events. Local residents accuse not only Igor and Lyudmila Alyokhin, but also their children of the attacks. School Director Zhanna Harutyunyan told Izvestia that the couple's underage daughter brought a knife to school and threatened students.
In 2024, one of the parents of classmates of the Alyokhin children wrote a statement to the police. It stated that the girl was harassing one of the students with "an object similar to a knife." The police refused to prosecute the case, since the presence of the girl's weapon "was not proved".
The Izvestia editorial office was contacted by two more parents who complained about children from a "bad family" and reported that the Alyokhins' daughter carries a knife. And another woman reported that her child had been strangled - and pointed to the Alyokhins.
That same year, another villager, Makich Kocharyan, applied to law enforcement agencies - because of threats against his daughter.
- The Alyokhins' children waited for her on a small bridge near the school and pelted her with burning matches and firecrackers. They promised to let her go if she cried for five minutes," he said.
In response to his statement, the police said that the children's actions fall under the administrative article on petty hooliganism, but refused to initiate a case, explaining that those who threatened Kocharyan's daughter were under the age of responsibility.
The school director also said that the parents of the pupils transferred their children to other educational institutions, explaining that they feared for their health.
Residents of Etoka in 2024 insisted on meeting with the administration of the Predgorny district of Stavropol region and wrote a collective complaint against the family. The video taken during the meeting of villagers with the representative of the agency is at the disposal of the editorial office. The footage shows dozens of people shouting and demanding that they and their children be protected from this family.
Why cases were denied
A large number of statements to the police from the same parties to a conflict may be perceived by law enforcement agencies as one-size-fits-all, so refusals are a common story, lawyer Anatoly Korovin told Izvestia.
- Dozens of applications may be combined in one book of incident reports and issued a general refusal, if the complaints are constantly copying each other," he said.
Lack of corpus delicti may imply that the action was committed through negligence, has no consequences, or no causal link between them and the actions of a person has been proven, explained Oleg Cherkasov, a leading lawyer at the European Legal Service. According to him, Lyudmila Alyokhina could have been denied the case for the same reason.
He also noted that clarification of the circumstances of any of the complaints could be complicated by the fact that family members, as a rule, defend each other.
- The more family members, the more witness testimony will be available, confirming their favorable position, - said Oleg Cherkasov. - Also in accordance with Art. 51 of the Russian Constitution, family members may not testify against themselves and their close relatives, which complicates the process.
In the presence of mass complaints, law enforcement agencies may take special control of the checks, but in each case it is decided on an individual basis, said Nina Ostanina, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children's Issues.
- It is necessary to deal with each case individually to understand whether the interests of more citizens, socially unprotected categories of the population, and children are really affected. If mass complaints against an entire family have a basis, then the parents must answer," she said.
"Izvestia" sent a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to learn about the reasons for refusing to initiate criminal proceedings. At the time of publication of the material, the response from the department has not been received.
How to bring neighbors to responsibility
Every second Russian at least once quarreled with neighbors, and every tenth - went to court or the police with complaints about them, according to a study of the service "SberStrakhovanie", which was conducted in 2021. 37% of respondents surveyed then added that they never managed to reach peace and agreement with their neighbors.
In 2022, the insurance company "Rosgosstrakh" found out that every fourth resident of Russia had to call the police to resolve a conflict with neighbors in an apartment building. Almost half of the respondents reported that they tried to settle domestic conflicts directly. And every tenth admitted that it came to a scandal. Despite different ways of conflict resolution, in half of the cases there was no result, the respondents noted.
Evgeny Korneev, a leading lawyer of the European Legal Service, noted that neighbors can only be "subdued" by proving the unlawfulness of their behavior, but it is impossible to forcibly evict neighbors.
- There is no such norm in the Russian legislation. This applies to any settlements, neighborhoods, as well as cottage settlements. Because of the systematic violation of the rights of neighbors can be evicted only from municipal or public housing, which is rented under a social lease agreement, - said the expert.
He also said that if there is a conflict, it is necessary to confirm all the circumstances of what is happening - to shoot video, make audio recordings, collect testimony. This, according to him, will allow to provide law enforcement agencies with proof of their position.
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