Khachaturyan Sisters Separated Seven Years After Father's Killing
In late January, it became known that the Investigative Committee (SK) resumed the investigation into the case of the Khachaturyan sisters. The girls are accused of murdering their own father in July 2018. The case caused a huge public outcry due to allegations of domestic violence in the family. At the time, many sided with the sisters and showed support at rallies and on social media.
Krestina, Angelina, and Maria — then aged 19, 18, and 17 respectively — spoke of their father«s constant torture and sexual harassment. Posthumously, last autumn, a court found Mikhail Khachaturyan guilty of abusing his children. All this time, the murder case has been on hold, and the sisters have been separated by court order for 7.5 years, uncertain of what awaits them.
«The court has established Mikhail Khachaturyan«s guilt in violent acts against his daughters. This decision has entered into force. Now the work on the criminal cases has resumed,» MSK1.RU was told by the youngest sister»s lawyer, Yaroslav Pakulin. «In the plural, because there are two cases: one against Angelina and Krestina, and the second against Maria, as she was found to have been insane at the time of the crime.»
The lawyers intend to demand the case be dropped and insist it was self-defense against the father«s cruel attacks. However, if the investigation and prosecution keep the seven-year-old classification — murder by prior conspiracy — the girls could face from eight years in prison to a life sentence.
MSK1.RU reports on how the Khachaturyan sisters have lived all these years awaiting justice and what future may await them.
How the Khachaturyan Sisters Live Now
«When it all happened, as of 2018, one of the girls was studying at a medical college (referring to the eldest sister, Krestina. — Ed.). The others were attending school. For a time, they stopped their education,» MSK1.RU was told by lawyer Alexei Parshin.
Angelina and Maria finished school during the investigation. They never received higher education. Their mother, in an interview with our colleagues at Woman.ru, explained that her daughters did not go to university — largely due to the uncertainty of their future. Now all three girls work, since Aurelia (their mother) could not support the family alone.
«Angelina and Maria took the Unified State Exam while under investigation and got good scores. As for Krestina, at the time of the incident she was enrolled in the medical college. She dropped out,» the mother said.
To help their mother, all three girls started working immediately. Lawyer Parshin explained that, at the family«s request, he cannot disclose what professions they chose.
«We agreed not to reveal where they are currently working, for safety reasons, since the case is high-profile and public,» he said.
In 2021, the publication Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote that due to their financial situation, the girls had to take any work, since their mother and maternal grandmother earned little. One of the sisters, as MK wrote, got a job as a supermarket cashier, but there she was recognized by customers — she had to leave for another job where no one would see her.
However, they could not return to the apartment not because of investigative actions or a sealed door, but because relatives had taken over the home.
«The apartment where Mikhail lived with the girls was taken over by relatives. They gave away some belongings. I even remember driving over myself to pick up some things. But in any case, belongings are not just clothes but also household items. We use dozens of things every day: kettles, hairdryers, and so on. So we had to start life from scratch,» Parshin said. «Fortunately, close friends helped resolve these issues with apartments and housing. At first, the only working hands were the mother. But gradually everything normalized, thank God.»
By court order, the sisters are forbidden from communicating with each other, so they had to live separately. It is known that the youngest, Maria, lives with her mother in a panel building near the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD), Angelina moved in with an aunt, and Krestina started an independent life — her former lawyer Alexei Liptser helped with housing.
Khachaturyan«s Inheritance
The family also had financial problems because the sisters renounced all of their father«s inheritance. The girls» mother, Aurelia, whom Mikhail had thrown out of the house along with his eldest son, was not on the list of heirs at all. As the lawyer explains, they were either divorced or never officially married.
«The girls immediately wrote a renunciation of the inheritance because at the time there was strong speculation that they had done everything out of mercenary motives. So to avoid that speculation, they simply renounced it,» Parshin explained. «The eldest son, who lived with his mother, also renounced. As I recall, Mikhail«s sisters entered into the inheritance. At that time, the grandmother, Mikhail»s mother, was still alive — she was also a first-line heir.»
«They Miss Each Other»
Initially, the sisters were placed in a pretrial detention center, but later they were transferred to a «ban on certain actions.» Apart from each other, they are also forbidden from communicating with relatives and friends who are witnesses in the case.
For the first two years, the sisters were not allowed to communicate with their mother either. An exception was made only for the youngest, Maria. But over time, that ban was lifted.
For 7.5 years now, the girls have been banned from using the internet and any communication except emergency calls. Communication with the media and public appearances are also forbidden. Initially, there was a curfew for the sisters, but now Krestina, Angelina, and Maria can move freely. If they leave the city, they must notify the inspectors.
«Of course, they miss each other,» MSK1.RU was told by lawyer Alexei Parshin. «Now they can at least talk to their mother. Because the first years it was not allowed — only Maria could, as a minor. The only thing they can do is send greetings through their mother. But it«s very hard for them because they were inseparable all their lives. It»s difficult for anyone without loved ones. And here it«s a full seven years.»
Another lawyer for the girls, Mari Davtyan, added that the separation takes a heavy toll on the sisters« emotional state. Let us recall that due to the restrictions, they could not attend the funeral of their maternal grandmother, who died after the investigation began.
«Almost eight years have passed. There are no reasonable grounds to forbid the girls from communicating with each other when they have already given all their testimony in the case multiple times, each more than ten times,» Davtyan explained to our colleagues at StarHit.
Could the Khachaturyan Sisters« Case Be Dropped?
The sisters« defense is waiting to receive the full text of the ruling regarding Mikhail Khachaturyan. After that, they will demand a complete dismissal of the case against the sisters.
«Now we have reached the finish line. In our opinion, the case has already been significantly delayed. We will file a motion to dismiss the criminal case because the facts of Mikhail«s violence against his children have been established by the courts. That ruling has entered into force,» said Alexei Parshin.
In 2025, the Butyrsky District Court of Moscow issued a ruling posthumously finding Mikhail Khachaturyan guilty on three charges.
Violent acts of a sexual nature against a minor (Article 132, Part 3). «This is an ongoing crime against each girl,» explained lawyer Alexei Parshin.
Illegal production and circulation of pornographic materials or objects (Article 242, Part 3). «He sent pornographic videos to one of his girlfriends. She was also recognized as a victim,» the lawyer explained.
Intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm (Article 111, Part 3). «This includes the severe psychological trauma that the girls live with to this day,» the lawyer says.
«The defense position, in short, is that Krestina was not involved in inflicting any injuries on her father, and that the actions of Angelina and Maria clearly constitute necessary self-defense,» explained another lawyer, Yaroslav Pakulin.
Sex Crimes and Closed Hearings
If the case is not dropped and does go to court again, open hearings should not be expected.
«They are all held in closed session because there are details of sex crimes, plus medical data is disclosed. We are ready to disclose ours. It is no secret that all three girls have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and battered person syndrome, and Maria was in an insane state,» Parshin explained.
The case also contains medical data on Mikhail Khachaturyan. Parshin«s defense said they cannot disclose or comment on it. It likely concerns a posthumous psychological, sexological, and psychiatric examination of the father. This was among the grounds for the ruling finding him guilty of abusing his children.
«We cannot and will not talk about this, but Mikhail«s relatives have already leaked it to the media themselves. That is exactly why such cases are held in closed session, to prevent public discussion. Plus, Maria was not 18 at the time of the incident,» Parshin said.
In 2019, Mash published a photo of one of the posthumous psychological examinations, which mentioned mixed personality disorder as well as a disorder of sexual preference, including ephebophilia — sexual attraction of adults to adolescents and youths. In 2021, Moskovsky Komsomolets revealed the results of another examination. It also concerned that Mikhail was found to have a disorder of sexual desire of the «pedophilic» type.
Earlier, we reported on an egregious case: on 24 January in Moscow, a mother killed her five-year-old son in the bathtub. During interrogation by the Investigative Committee, the woman stated that she had long been thinking about killing her son because she did not want to raise him. On 26 January, the Nagatinsky Court sent her to a pretrial detention center on charges of murder of a minor (paragraph «c» of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
