A resident of Yerevan complained about the taking of children during the divorce.

During the divorce, the husband took two children from Yerevan to Moscow and did not return them by the agreed date, said Anzhelika Tsivinskaya. She saw the children after lengthy searches and the intervention of the police, guardianship authorities, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The father's actions violated the children's rights and were not in their best interests, noted lawyer Svetlana Vdovina.

According to Anzhelika Tsivinskaya, in 2007 she married Roman Tsivinsky in Moscow. In 2022, she and the children moved to Yerevan. Tsivinskaya and her children have Armenian citizenship, and in 2022, Roman Tsivinsky also obtained Armenian citizenship through marriage.

"In 2024, we effectively separated, he moved to Georgia. In March 2026, the divorce was formally processed," Tsivinskaya told the correspondent of "Caucasian Knot".

During the divorce, they agreed on the children's place of residence. The older son from this marriage was already 18 years old and could determine his residence independently. Therefore, the discussion was about two minor sons. An agreement was reached that they would stay with their mother in Yerevan.

Roman Tsivinsky called once or twice a month, visited for a few days in May, and in July asked for permission to take the children on vacation to the sea with the agreement that he would return them to Yerevan by August 20. However, as it turned out, instead of the sea, he took them to Moscow, Anzhelika Tsivinskaya said.

In the lawsuit filed in July for divorce, signed by Roman Tsivinsky's lawyer Ksenia Skripchenko (a copy is available to "Caucasian Knot"), it is stated that the divorcing spouses reached an agreement on the maintenance of the minor children: "The place of residence was determined by mutual consent with the mother".

Roman Tsivinsky himself also emphasized in a separate statement that he "fully" supports the lawsuit and its claims.

The case was supposed to be heard by the magistrate of judicial district No. 445 in the Izmaylovo district of Moscow on August 14, Anzhelika Tsivinskaya continued.

"I flew to Moscow on August 13. But he did not appear in court and, as it later turned out, withdrew his lawsuit a few days before the court with consent. On August 15, I received a voice message from the children saying that dad was taking them somewhere in the woods. I went to the police. They told me: what can we do? He is their father. On August 16, I went to Petrovka, 38, to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow, where I also filed a statement, and on the 17th, I appealed to the prosecutor's office with a complaint about the police's inaction. On August 20, I contacted the office of the children's rights commissioner," Tsivinskaya said.

On August 19, she filed a lawsuit in the Izmaylovo District Court to determine the children's place of residence.

According to Tsivinskaya, all this time she was trying to find the children. Finally, on August 24, believing that her ex-husband would enroll their middle son in school (he had already completed the first grade in Yerevan), she began visiting schools in the Izmaylovo district.

"And then, passing by one of the buildings, I saw my younger son waving to me from the window on the fifth floor. I called the police and guardianship representatives, and we went to the doors of that apartment. We knocked for an hour and a half, but to no avail. Then I called the Ministry of Emergency Situations, explaining the situation – a child in the window and so on. As soon as the Ministry of Emergency Situations representatives arrived and struck the hinges with a hammer, the door opened – it turned out my ex-husband had been in the apartment all this time, while the children were kept in the back room," Anzhelika Tsivinskaya noted.

According to her, Roman Tsivinsky was turning the children against her.

"When we entered, the middle son hid behind a wardrobe, then said: 'Mom, why did you call the court – do you want us to be sent to an orphanage?' – and stated that if he went with me, dad would be taken to prison. The younger one, on the contrary, rushed to me: 'Mom, I want to go with you'.

We were taken to guardianship. And there they said quite harshly: if you do not come to an agreement, we will take both children to a temporary detention center. My husband said – let them go. Then I gave in and left him the middle son, taking the younger one," Tsivinskaya noted.

According to her, she has not received any help from the agencies to which she sent requests. "The office of the children's rights commissioner has only asked me to write in more detail how it all happened. The guardianship authorities stated that they could only conduct a preventive conversation," Anzhelika Tsivinskaya said.

As a result of Roman Tsivinsky's actions, the children were completely isolated from their mother, grandmother, and older brother, removed from their familiar environment, which violates the children's rights to upbringing in the family, communication with their mother and other family members, noted Anzhelika Tsivinskaya's lawyer Svetlana Vdovina.

"Such actions by the father constitute an abuse of rights and are not in the interests of the children, which is not permitted by family legislation of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Armenia, and international legal acts," the lawyer explained to the correspondent of "Caucasian Knot".

There is no question of criminal prosecution of Roman Tsivinsky, she clarified. "Our actions are aimed at restoring the violated rights of the children and returning them to their place of permanent residence based on the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; we are not seeking criminal prosecution of the father," the lawyer said.

The time frame for considering cases of the return of unlawfully moved children to the territory of the Russian Federation is defined by the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation; cases of this category must be considered within no more than forty-two days, Vdovina continued. She noted that a ban on the child's departure from the Russian Federation may be imposed either at the request of one of the parents to the Federal Migration Service or as a precautionary measure imposed by the court.

"The application for a travel ban specifies the duration of the ban and the countries to which the child cannot be taken. At the same time, submitting such an application does not prevent the parent who imposed the ban from traveling abroad with the child themselves," the lawyer explained.

"Caucasian Knot" currently does not have a comment from Roman Tsivinsky. Attempts to contact him directly were unsuccessful, and his lawyer declined to comment on the request.