Close people: how guardianship authorities separate children from relatives
A resident of Vologda is seeking custody of her great-granddaughter Nika, who was orphaned after the death of her father and the tragic death of her mother. The 65-year-old woman, who has been with the girl throughout her life, spent two months collecting documents and received approval for custody. But when I arrived at the orphanage, I found out that my great—granddaughter had already been sent to another family, allegedly a Novgorod official. A similar case occurred in Krasnoyarsk, where a child left without parental care was not reunited with his sister. Izvestia investigated why guardianship authorities make decisions without taking into account family ties.
Why wasn't the child given to his grandmother
Olga Adamovich, a resident of Vologda, told about the custody situation of her great-granddaughter on social networks. According to the woman, on January 16, 2026, her granddaughter, 22-year-old Alina Ostanina, tragically died in the city of Soltsy, Novgorod region. Even earlier, Alina's husband Igor Ostanin died in the SVO zone. Their daughter Nika (now two years and nine months old) was orphaned.
The girl was temporarily placed in an orphanage in the city of Soltsy. And, according to the woman, it was from an employee of the guardianship authorities of this city that she first received an offer to leave her great-granddaughter in an educational institution, allegedly because there is a local official who would like to take the child for himself and establish custody. Olga Adamovich refused and decided to raise Nick on her own, submitting an application to the Vologda department of guardianship and guardianship (the family was registered in Vologda).
For a month and a half, she collected documents and put the apartment in order at the request of the guardianship authorities. Several times, the woman was forced to correct mistakes made by officials, which led to the postponement of a trip to an orphanage for Nika. On February 25, she received an opinion that she could be a guardian, and on February 26 she was already in Veliky Novgorod. However, there she was informed that "Nikushka had been taken away by some official and had already established custody over her."
Olga Adamovich pointed out that according to the law No. 48-FZ "On Guardianship and Trusteeship", close relatives have a preferential right to custody of children. And this is true: guardianship is not automatically granted, but first of all, officials should consider the candidacy of relatives.
"I consider the actions of the guardianship and guardianship authorities of Veliky Novgorod to be unlawful. The guardianship authorities in Veliky Novgorod were aware that I was collecting documents for the custody of my great—granddaughter, but nevertheless they transferred her to the custody of a stranger!" the woman emphasized in her publication.
She added that she has the opportunity to raise Nika. To prove this, the girl's relative underwent all the necessary medical examinations and confirmed her financial well-being.
"I am 65 years old, but I know that custody is established at a later age. I've been there all the time, since Niki was born, helping and caring, walking, picking up from kindergarten. Nika's mother (Alina), due to the circumstances surrounding her husband's death in her military unit, was forced to attend courts in another city. Therefore, for 1.5 years I often lived with Nikusha. During this time, we became very attached to each other," Olga Adamovich wrote.
She told Izvestia that in the near future she expects a decision from the guardianship authorities to cancel the transfer of the child to someone else's family.
The Commissioners for children's rights in two regions, as well as law enforcement agencies, have already intervened in the case. The SU IC for the Novgorod region organized a procedural check.
The Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Novgorod Region, Tatyana Efimova, in a conversation with Izvestia, noted that so far it is impossible to draw any conclusions about what happened, as an inspection is underway, including by law enforcement agencies and the prosecutor's office. The Department of Guardianship and Trusteeship of the Vologda City Administration stressed that it "promptly issued a positive opinion on the possibility of becoming the girl's guardian" to Olga Adamovich, noting that she, as a relative, has priority over outsiders when establishing custody.
The Ministry of Education of the Novgorod Region informed Izvestia that an inspection of the guardianship authorities was underway.
Izvestia sent a request to the Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Vologda region. No response had been received at the time of publication.
Alexandra Marova, director of the Foundation for the Prevention of Social Orphanhood, clarified that in order to give a child to someone else's family if there is a close blood relative who expresses a desire to raise him, good reasons are needed — and in the case of Olga Adamovich, no such reasons are presented. The situation, according to the expert, looks "like outright negligence."
Moreover, the girl could have been given to her great-grandmother as soon as she expressed her intention to take the child. It was possible to do this through pre-guardianship, for which the passport of the applicant for guardianship and the examination certificate are sufficient. After that, the guardian would have six months to collect a package of documents for permanent custody.
— Why in this situation this was not done in relation to the great—grandmother is a big question, the answer to which, in my opinion, lies in the plane of the formal attitude to their duties on the part of the guardianship staff, — Alexandra Marova is convinced.
It is often easier for the guardianship authority to place a child in an organization for orphaned children than to arrange a search for a potential guardian from among relatives, she added.
— Therefore, if the guardian does not come to custody himself, then no one takes such actions, the child remains in the institution. And then, if you're lucky, he's transferred to substitute families," the expert said. "Most likely, in the case of the Vologda region, the great—grandmother's visit was not documented, she was simply consulted and given a list of documents, without tracking or entering information about her into local databases.
Can the court change the custody decision
Another drama unfolded in Krasnoyarsk. There, Maria Tereshchuk, a mother with many children, is trying to gain custody of a newborn girl, her adopted daughter's sister, through the court. According to the woman, the guardianship authorities transferred the baby to another family for preliminary custody, without notifying her that her adopted daughter had a sister: the mother, who gave birth to another child, again abandoned him at the perinatal center. At the same time, the newborn's questionnaire indicated that she had no siblings. Maria found out about the birth of the girl by chance — from an employee with whom she communicated on a completely different occasion. The woman went to court to reunite the sisters.
Izvestia sent a request to the Krasnoyarsk city administration. No response has been received at the time of publication.
Alexandra Marova notes that in both cases, as a result of custody actions — formal or negligent — not only the child's blood family suffers, but also the one that has already actually adopted him. And, of course, the child himself.
— You can cancel any decision in court if the court considers that it is necessary in the interests of the child and that the decisions taken by the authorities contradict the current legislation, — the interlocutor of Izvestia added. — Another thing is that often in small towns the courts prefer to support the authorities.
The expert explained that it is possible to formally separate brothers and sisters if it objectively corresponds to their interests. For example, if they do not know each other, have never lived together, have a bad relationship with each other, even to the point of harming each other, or if one of the children has a serious illness that significantly reduces his chances of finding a family. In each specific case, custody and, if necessary, the court should delve into the situation and make decisions based on the circumstances, rather than proceeding from the interests of adults or the system.
Lada Uvarova, President of the Children are Waiting Foundation, confirmed that decisions on the transfer of a child are rarely overturned by the courts, even if a mistake has been made. The logic is that while the proceedings are underway, the child is growing up in the family — and by the time the initial mistake is established, the transfer to relatives is no longer in his interests: for him it will be a new separation from loved ones.
What needs to be changed in child custody
At the same time, experts agree that in recent years, there have been significantly fewer cases of children being separated from their blood relatives.
— The policy of supporting the blood family has been clearly expressed in the country. Because of this, sometimes there are even excesses in this direction, when a child returns to his family in case of abuse anyway," said Elena Alshanskaya, president of the Volunteers for Orphaned Children charity Foundation.
Lada Uvarova added that due to the enormous importance of these cases, they often receive very wide publicity and turn into real wars in the courts, social networks and the media.
— Since the decision—making criteria are quite flexible — children cannot be separated, but it is possible in their own interests; close relatives have priority, but the interests of the child are paramount above it - the issue is decided individually in each case. Therefore, such disputes cannot be avoided, — the interlocutor of Izvestia is sure.
The lack of full regulation in these decisions is reasonable, because the main criterion should be the interests of the child, she stressed. But she clarified that a lot of responsibility always falls on the guardianship authorities: if the appointed guardian does not cope, then questions will arise about how the decision to transfer the child was made.
Various requirements that lead to formalism in the decisions of the guardianship authorities can also complicate the situation, Elena Alshanskaya added. For example, the requirement not to degrade the region's statistics.
— In addition, the law on the data bank makes it necessary to arrange for a child as soon as possible. And there are deadlines: it is necessary to lay out a database in a month, for such a period they should arrange at the regional level, etc., - said the interlocutor of Izvestia. — I understand the legislative logic: it was thought out a long time ago to spur the activity of the guardianship authorities. But it is, in fact, related in a sense to the pipeline.
The expert admitted that if the legislation is made more flexible, there may be opposite situations when a child is not settled into a family for a long time. But "it is quite possible to pass between these Scylla and Charybdis," said Elena Alshanskaya.
The issue of corruption-causing factors that may arise against the background of a high demand for small, healthy children in their actual absence from orphanages can be solved by changing the approach to the child's placement procedure, she noted.
— It is important that people approach this issue more consciously, realizing that in Russia today, it is not infants who need a family arrangement, but children with difficult life experiences who need help and support: teenagers and children with disabilities. It is necessary that the idea of the family structure change and that children come for them consciously, thoughtfully, and with a willingness to give their resources to a child who needs it," the volunteer concluded.
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