Flat dispute may be the reason Victoria is stuck in Russia (From Daily Echo)

Flat dispute may be the reason Victoria is stuck in Russia

11:09am Saturday 6th September 2008 in

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THE ownership of a flat could lie behind the dispute that has seen a Hampshire girl trapped in Russia.

Victoria Osborne’s stepfather believes she has become a pawn in a dispute between her parents, Tatiana Osborne and Yuri Gladkikh.

Victoria, 11, was on her way back from visiting family in the country with her mother when she was stopped from boarding the flight home.

Russian officials at Moscow Airport told the pair a legal order had been placed on the schoolgirl, preventing her leaving the country for the next seven years.

Her biological father, a colonel in the Russian Army, invoked a law that prevents the children of divorced parents from leaving the country until they are 18.

Mrs Osborne, 34, who divorced Col Gladkikh eight years ago, is free to leave the country but has refused to go without her daughter, known as Vicka.

Although they are British citizens, the pair travelled on Russian passports, making them subject to that country’s law.

Victoria’s stepdad Dr Patrick Osborne said: “What we have here is someone in the military acting as a coward and using an innocent child as a pawn to try to get possession of a flat in Saratov. You don’t expect an officer to bring shame on the Russian Army.”

Dr Osborne, 52, of Ilex Close, Kings Worthy, a lecturer at the University of Southampton, said lawyers were negotiating over the flat. He said he had no idea how long the negotiations would last.

He told the Daily Echo the dispute was causing great distress to Tatiana and Victoria, who was due to start at The Westgate School last week.

Dr Osborne said: “They are distressed.

Emotions go from flickers of hope to despair. They both just want to come home. It is very hard for everyone to cope.”

He said that currently he felt he should stay in the UK and research the Internet to send information to his wife. But he said if the matter was unresolved in a couple of weeks he will apply for a visa to fly out to Russia.

Col Gladkikh was unavailable for comment.