Akhmedova claims stepfather was drunk during child's bath

Primorsky activist Margarita Akhmedova, who kidnapped her own daughter from a rehabilitation center, said that her cohabitant washed the then 6-year-old child at her request. In a lengthy interview with VLADIVOSTOK1.RU, she clarified that she saw nothing unusual in this and did not anticipate what the situation would lead to.

Margarita Akhmedova became the heroine of a high-profile story last month. On October 6, she kidnapped her daughter from a boarding school in Artyom, and later published a video in which she claimed that her child was being held in the institution. After that, they hid from law enforcement for two weeks.

When the video appeared online, the Investigative Committee of Russia stated that the 7-year-old girl was placed in a rehabilitation center because her stepfather had committed sexual violence against her, and it was the mother who initiated sending her daughter to the boarding school. At the same time, the agency clarified that the woman had previously lost parental rights, she has two older children over whom she does not have custody, and Margarita was also accused of obstructing investigative actions.

People who knew Margarita believed that she was being pressured through her child due to her active civic position. Her like-minded person Elina Davydova said that the woman was among the Primorsky residents who spoke out against the construction of a waste sorting landfill in the Nadezhdinsky District. Deputy of the municipal duma Oleg Grigoryev clarified that the mother of the missing girl often interacted with him, demanded the resignation of the head of the Nadezhdinsky District, and generally fought for the rights of the population.

During the conversation, Margarita clarified that she and her daughter have an undefined relationship with the cohabitant. On one hand, he is a hired worker guarding the house in Terekhovka and helping with household chores, and on the other—he lived with her even when she was pregnant, which is why the girl called him dad.

Speaking about how the situation occurred that led to accusations of sexual violence, Margarita said that in their small house in Terekhovka, there are no conditions for organizing a bath or washing, which is why she and her daughter went to wash in the village of Baranovsky, to an acquaintance«s apartment, who gave them the key but did not live there himself.

In March 2024, Margarita got a job as a cleaner in a construction camp that appeared across the road from their small house, and the woman would take her daughter there after kindergarten to wash in the shower stalls, but in the end, she decided to quit, and during the notice period, her child was forbidden to enter the territory, so she asked the cohabitant to take her daughter to the acquaintance«s apartment.

«I had to work two more weeks before leaving, but the child was already forbidden to visit the territory. I couldn«t take her to the shower for a week, and I couldn»t run to the apartment in Baranovsky because of work. For this reason, I asked the cohabitant to take the child to that apartment and wash her. There is no hot water there, only water heaters. I planned that the cohabitant would wash the child, the water heater would heat up, and he would wash himself; for me, it was a simple matter. It turned out that they washed together»,—said the activist.

According to Margarita, she only learned about the ambiguous actions by the cohabitant in the summer from a neighbor, whose daughter sometimes communicated with Masha. This woman recorded a video in which the girl said that she washed with «dad» in the shower, and eventually sent the recording to law enforcement agencies.

At the same time, the activist believes that the neighbor could have pursued her own interests and specifically recorded Masha saying something compromising, for example, for extortion or due to personal dislike. Also, according to her, the video eventually spread around Terekhovka, and her cohabitant was beaten by locals.

«I found out that this woman repeated the same thing, but with some other girl, forced her to say something compromising. Perhaps she earns money from this, perhaps she had a dislike for my cohabitant. It«s unclear why she did it, but the investigator was not interested in who exactly recorded this video, she did not ask who this woman was, even though it is clear that the child knows her. The case stated that someone unknown published the recording on social networks. Whether the investigator herself is interested—I don»t know, it all seemed very strange to me. I filed almost 80 complaints, but in the end, I concluded for myself that the administration, supervisory authorities, and law enforcement do not understand the situation. This is an organized criminal community in the echelons of power»,—clarified Margarita.

Margarita noted that she saw nothing strange in the request to wash the child, as she trusted the man, and her daughter could not wash herself independently.

«He has no children or family of his own, so he apparently considered us as members of his family. I probably wouldn«t have agreed to send the child with a strange uncle to go wash otherwise. Since this person has seen the child since birth, helped in some upbringing, I couldn»t consider that he is not a family member, although, in essence, we have independent forms of life. She was still too small to wash herself. I always washed her myself, and at that time, she couldn«t take a shower or wash her hair on her own. She had just turned 6 years old then»,—said the woman.

At the same time, Margarita does not deny that the man could have been in the same bathroom with the girl while naked. She clarified that she would have reacted negatively to this and did not think that he would not realize it was wrong, but he had problems with alcohol, and it is quite possible that, being drunk, he could have done something inappropriate.

«I cannot affirm this. Perhaps he was dressed, perhaps undressed, let«s leave this question to the conscience of the man himself, who is in a pre-trial detention center. This question is not for me, what he was like. In any case, I can assume that if this person was drunk at that moment, then perhaps something inappropriate happened. Unfortunately, I did not see whether he was sober or drunk; I left for work in the morning, returned in the evening, and picked up the child, I didn»t notice what he was like. The person lives his own life, we live our life with the child»,—emphasized Margarita.

Also, according to one of the many versions voiced in online comments, during the washing with the girl, the man asked her to touch his genitals. During the interview, Margarita could not precisely recall whether her daughter spoke about this during the interrogation.

«I will not affirm. The child gave testimony twice. Once the child gave testimony, apparently, as you say. I honestly say, I don«t remember how the child spoke, and I will not quote, because that would be a secret of the investigation. Twice she gave testimony, and they were contradictory. First, she said that something like that happened, and the second time, she said she was joking, and these data were not included in the protocol. Now they are building the accusatory line based on what was in the protocol, and what was not included, they do not want to consider. I was recording audio during the interrogation, but unfortunately, my laptop burned out then. The recording was provided to the Investigative Committee, but it was not attached to the case»,—clarified the woman.

The girl herself did not tell her mother anything about this, and the cohabitant denies all accusations and says that nothing like that happened. Margarita, however, believes that if physical contact did occur, it was only because the girl herself might have shown interest in the man when he was nearby, and nothing bad definitely happened to her.

«And what is the guilt? In that he washed a person? I will even explain the situation why this could have happened. The child had already approached me with the question of where children come from. Linking birth to natural theory, as I raise the child, I began to explain where trees come from. We found out that there is a seed, it falls into the ground, grows, develops, and a flower appears. I had to explain that boys and girls have different things. The probability that the child, interested in this and seeing dad nearby, could look and touch is high, because my child is very curious. As I say again, from the methodology «try the universe by taste». Where you try, you also touch, feel, the process of cognition occurs through all senses. There is a probability that the child could have done this, but I don«t think that he touched because he was offered»,—said the woman.

Read the full analysis of the high-profile story via the link, and all materials on the topic can be read in a special feature.