Siberian Girl Flees to Armenia, Parents Dispute Her Claims

On January 15, 18-year-old Victoria Kuznetsova from Minusinsk managed to accomplish what she had planned on December 24: she escaped from her parents and left the country. Her first escape failed: her mother filed a report for theft, she was detained by police at the airport, her father came for her and took her to Sochi, confiscated her money and phone. It is now known that Vika is in Armenia, and the girl recorded a video saying she is safe. Why the girl ran away, what her parents plan to do to return their adult daughter to Russia, and why they want to do so—in the material by NGS24.RU editor-in-chief Kadria Katzina.

First Escape: Reasons

On December 24, a scandal erupted at Domodedovo Airport: a girl from Minusinsk was detained on suspicion of theft. Her flight to Egypt was canceled. She intended to go to her boyfriend Artyom, who currently lives in Chile.

A theft report is the most common way to catch someone trying to escape. The police search for them, detain them, and later the reporting relatives arrive and take the runaway away.

Since the «theft» most often occurs from the place where the person who plans to escape lives (i.e., without breaking into someone else«s home) and, as a rule, the person has no criminal record, police officers have no grounds to hold them at the station, so they release them to relatives.

The girl planned to get to Chile via several countries.

— She had tickets for Abakan—Krasnoyarsk, Krasnoyarsk—Moscow, Moscow—Egypt, Egypt—Turkey, Abu Dhabi and a couple more countries, in short, — Victoria«s father Eduard told an NGS24.RU journalist.

Journalists learned about Vika«s detention in late December 2025 from Artyom: the young man turned to human rights activists and decided to publicize the situation in hopes that the girl could still fly to him. In a conversation with an NGS24.RU journalist, he repeatedly mentioned that the girl needed to be rescued. As he believes, her father forced her to go to Sochi by force and drove her the whole way in the cold bed of a car in light clothing.

As Artyom told, they had planned Victoria«s arrival. The couple was supposed to get married in a local Orthodox church. Victoria»s young man is from Minusinsk himself. They studied together in school and started dating in the ninth grade.

— We«ve been dating for four years, we know each other better than anyone. We»ve been planning this trip for a very long time. Victoria«s mother knew where and to whom she was going. She didn»t hinder it at all. She was in favor, — Artyom continued.

However, after the girl took all her savings and money that, according to her mother, were at home on December 23 and tried to leave, the good relationship between her parents and her boyfriend ended. Threats began: her father promised to break his fingers (this fact is not denied by Eduard himself, in a conversation with the journalist he confirms it. — Ed.).

Instead of Hurghada—Sochi

The parents decided that Vika needed to live with her father in Sochi. They believed it would do her good: she would calm down, and they could start working with a psychologist. Victoria«s mother Irina told this to an NGS24.RU journalist.

According to human rights activists, at the airport her father gave her a choice: either jail or she leaves with him, since the police had a report about theft of money.

«She wrote an explanatory note under pressure and left with her father. They went to a hotel where Vika locked herself in the bathroom and called the police. They were taken to the station. The girl left the station with her father», — colleagues from MSK1.RU were informed by the human rights center «Marem».

According to a lawyer, Victoria spent the night of the 25th to the 26th in the bed of a car without warm clothing. After that, she tried to escape from her father twice—this happened already in Mytishchi. Traffic police officers picked the girl up on the road and contacted her father. He arrived and said that scammers were trying to deceive his daughter, after which the girl was released with her dad.

Second Escape: Sochi—Armenia

At home, the father talked with his 18-year-old daughter. He tried to convince her that trouble awaited her abroad.

— We were sitting at the table, I tell her: «Sweetie, you don»t understand! Do you realize why all this is happening?« I explain like an adult man, I say: »Sweetie, you«re a girl. They»ll bring you there, pump you full of drugs, and hairy fat uncles will use you as much as they want«.

The man believes that it is not her young man Artyom waiting for her abroad. Eduard is sure that his daughter is in trouble.

— I tried to put her on the federal wanted list, but they told me that she needed to commit a crime for the Investigative Committee to put her on the federal wanted list. You see, she«s an adult. I worry most of all that she»s a girl. Okay, let it be Artyom, if that«s true. I»ll find out anyway. So let it be Artyom, let him be with her. Yes, I worry most of all that it«s not Artyom. She»ll go there, they«ll pump her full of drugs and start using her, — Eduard explained his concerns.

Escape Chronology

On the day of Victoria«s second escape—January 15—her father told an NGS24.RU journalist that his daughter had been behaving calmly.

— A week ago I gave her a phone. Without internet, without anything. Just so she could at least be in touch. During this time everything was excellent: the perfect child, called me dad, talked with my stepdaughter, and talked with my wife. Of course, I checked the phone, it seemed all clean. Today I was loading my car in Krasnodar, was on the phone with the driver, lying on the sofa in the hall, she woke up, greeted me, went to eat. My stepdaughter went to school (she studies in the second shift. — Ed.), and she says: «Dad, I»m going for a walk. I«ll walk to »MoreMall«. I took the phone, I»ll be in touch«.

After that, Eduard only saw his daughter on camera recordings.

My wife goes into the children«s room, says: »Where is her backpack?« I run into the room, her things are gone, completely gone. Nothing is there. She took the professional camera that I gave her. I got dressed and ran to »MoreMall«, ran all over there—she»s nowhere. I call a policeman, he tells me to go to the station and file a theft report, so they could at least somehow stop her.

I called the girls, asked them to check the cameras. At 13:50, it turns out, she passed without a backpack, went behind the house and then came out with a backpack. We have a road down, a bit to the right. And she went a bit to the right. Probably, a taxi was already waiting for her there. The backpack—we live on the first floor—she threw it out the window. I quickly go to the police. There they quickly check the cameras. Time passes—she showed up at the airport at 14:45.

I rush by taxi to the airport. I get there in 20 minutes. I turned to the employees, they started looking at the cameras. They search for a ticket in her name, say there wasn«t any. No one bought anything on her Russian passport, and I have her international passport, I hid it. Later they told me that she showed up on a flight that had already landed in Armenia. I asked: »Why didn«t we find her earlier?» And they tell me that foreign carriers don«t give information.

She had an escort, they watched on cameras how she boarded the plane. Some guy in a blue jacket and a mask, that hospital mask.

She put everyone on the blacklist. From Armenia, she can at most fly either to Russia with her Russian passport, or apply through the consulate to get an international passport issued. She has no money, nothing, someone definitely paid for the taxi online, because, it turns out, at 13:50 she«s on camera near the store, at 14:45 she was already at the airport. 100% it was by taxi. Someone called a taxi for her online. They did all this for her online. And plus, on the cameras it»s visible, when she was boarding the plane, she was constantly on the phone. I was half an hour too late, — the agitated father told the NGS24.RU correspondent about Vika«s entire path to the airport.

Eduard told the journalist that he took her international passport and wanted to get rid of her Russian passport as well.

— I wanted to tear it up then, take it away and just tear it up. But I took pity. I generally had plans to report it lost through the police. I could do that through the police, pay for it. Like, a statement came from her. I know her signature, know all that. And report it lost, like, she has it, but it will be reported lost, it will be invalid.

«I«m living the worst moment in my life»

Victoria contacted NGS24.RU journalists after escaping to Armenia. The girl sent a video in which she says she is safe.

Victoria says in the video that she is afraid of the man who calls himself her father, and of her mother. The girl also wrote a short message to our publication«s correspondent.

— I am safe, but they are threatening me. I am experiencing the worst moment in my life, all comments later, — Victoria Kuznetsova clarified.

Victoria Kuznetsova«s parents watched the video she sent to the NGS24.RU editorial office. They shared with journalists what confuses them in this video. Victoria»s mother Irina is shocked by what her daughter says.

— Yes, I am in shock, of course, from all this. How am I threatening her relatives? We are her family, who suddenly became her relatives, I don«t understand. I haven»t communicated with Artyom at all. How can I threaten him? And this is just… I«m in shock. She didn»t ride in any trunk. But I, honestly, I even… I am so shocked now. I don«t even know what comments to give, — Irina shared.

First of all, the parents noticed that their daughter is reading from a text.

— She is reading, and the shooting was done in Sochi. [Visible] from the trees, without a hat, but she flew away in a hat. And she gets confused in dates, reading. She lost her hat, it«s cold outside, her nose is red—visible. A new hat arrived the day before the escape, and she was in it. And from her eyes it»s visible that she«s reading a text, prepared not by her, — Victoria»s father Eduard shared his thoughts.

Father Wrote to Bastrykin

What to do now that their daughter is in another country, the parents don«t know.

We with her father were waiting for her to calm down a bit, to start working with a psychologist. Her father asks: «Doesn»t she watch TV?« Artyom has influenced her so that she doesn»t watch TV, she removed it from the room, because supposedly they tell people lies there.

The father wrote to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Bastrykin and is trying to contact the Russian Embassy in Armenia. He thinks the escape was planned and someone helped Victoria. As he clarifies, his daughter left with no money at all, and someone bought her ticket, also someone called a taxi and calculated how much time was needed to get to the airport.

All materials about Victoria Kuznetsova«s escape from her parents abroad we collect in one story.