Thursday, March 16, 2017

Grishina's story - videos


Several major tv channels did short news segments on Grishina's story. In addition, NTV made an hour-long special.
Here are the links to the videos. I didn't do full summaries for each one, since they mainly repeat the same things we read in the interview. I'm only adding new information that was said in the videos.

Russia24 channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDAdwDSP0rQ
They say Nastia's mom isn't talking to the jorunalists and isn't answering the door. Several news programs actually made videos of the door of Grishina's parents' apartment, in one even Grishina and her husband stood near the door and then tried to open it (weird).
In this video the journalists are talking to the neighbors. One neighbor says one of Nastia's brothers is a drug addict and another went to jail three times, so the neighbors are trying to stay clear of the family because they're afraid.
Nastia refuses to let journalists into the apartment she rents - says the apartment is too small and doesn't even have a kitchen.
Andrey Rodionenko on the phone says Grishina isn't on the national team and isn't training anymore (duh!).
A lawyer says the situation is legally complicated, but it might be possible to prove that Nastia didn't understand what's happening with the money and didn't agree to give it to her parents.
Then a football player tells of a similar story with his parents.

NTV (short news segment):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErhJSyiH5aw
In this one Grishina and her husband are standing awkwardly by the parents' apartment.
Her lawyer also appears and talks about the case a bit, saying they have enough proof  of embezzlement to win the case.

1st channel:
https://vk.com/club4153493?z=video1764230_456239192%2F7017a5db117a6d4b59%2Fpl_wall_-4153493
Grishina repeats some moments of her story, her lawyer appears here, too. They show a personal VK page of Grishina's mom where she sold merch with Nastia's photos and autographs - mugs, fridge magnets etc.
Then they talk to Olga Sikkora - Nastia's first coach. Olga is really unhappy with both Nastia and her mom, she says that Nastia's mom was always thinking only about money. She then says that she expected Nastia to share some prize money from London with her, but I really don't understand why - she wasn't Nastia's Olympic coach. She says Nastia never thanked her and never gave gifts. It's pretty normal in Russia to give gifts to your coach, it wouldn't be considered a bribe or something, but, again, she hasn't been Nastia's coach for a long time, so I don't really understand why she's offended here.

And now the hour-long special on NTV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MleMSkhRxoU
Here it looks like they're filming  the beginning of the show in Grishina's rented apartment - so, I guess, she lets some journalists in.
Nastia said she was against her parents buying the dacha, since she never wanted to live there, but they didn't care about her opinion.
The show some shots from Nastia's wedding.
Nastia looks really sad, almost on the verge of crying and says she can't understand how money are more important to her mom than she is.
Nastia shows her Olympic silver medal and says that she will never give the medal away, at least she has this.
She filed two separate lawsuits against her mom - one for money and one for the property. She hopes the property will be arrested by the court soon, because she's afraid her mom will sell everything and spend the money before the cases are decided.
Then they make Nastia come into the studio and tell her story again in front of the people and the "experts" panel (even though they've already told her story before). Nastia is half-crying and her voice is trmbling, and the whole thing is extremely uncomfortable. I guess, the show is pretty trashy (I've never watched it before) and looks like it's their standard format.
Nastia says going to the press and talking about this thing publicly is extremely hard for her.
She thought she earned about 10 million rubles, so when she found out it was more than twice that, she was extremely surprised.
Her parents bought the dacha even before the Olympics - it was a small piece of land with a house that was only suitable for summer weather. They then renovated the house and adapted it for winter. She says here again that she never wanted to buy the dacha, it was her parents' decision, no one cared for her opinion even though it was her money. She says they used to own another dacha before, but further from Moscow, and the parents sold that dacha because they couldn't go there often with all Nastia's gym training. So, now they decided they deserve a new dacha for all their trouble. Then they also bought a room in a communal apartment, a studio apartment in Moscow's suburbs (which was originally meant for Nastia and her husband after the wedding) and a car for her father. None of it is in Nastia's name.
Her mom made her sign a prenup so that the husband wouldn't have any claim to Nastia's money. Mom always said that her husband is a gold-digger.
Only one of Nastia's brothers work. Apparently, two other brothers and her parents lived on her money.
Nastia says mom told her she's entitled to Nastia's money for all the time she spent on Nastia during the gymnastics career.
Nastia talks about her parents in a very respectful manner, she says she's grateful for all their sacrifices and that she had a normal childhood  and she loved them and never suspected that they could betray her.
She says they had great relationship before the Olympics. She thinks that all the huge amounts of prize money after the Olympics clouded her parents' judgement.
Then Nastia tells about her second injury (she doesn't specify when it was - I think it was about 2 years after the Olympics) - how she got injured a day before a competition and din't want to compete, but her mom made her. If Nastia didn't compete, she'd lose her national team salary - she didn't compete for a full year before that.
Nastia says her whole family hates her now.
Her mom was very unhappy when Nastia got pregnant because it meant the end of the competitive career (and money). Mom reluctantly babysat her son for a while, because Nastia wanted to resume training.
Nastia actually says that she wants to return to gymnastics and will try to do it. She was training in the Fall (not sure if she's currently training).
Her brother (the one who threatened to stab her), apparently, also tried to stab people at her wedding and they had to call the police. Later Nastia's husband spills that this brother was in jail, but they don't want to talk about any details - for how long, for what etc.
Ekaterina Baturina comes into the studio and tells that she's shocked about the whole story. She is then asked how her money was managed during her gymnastics career. Baturina tells that her mom managed the money and that later she bought an apartment with that money.

Nastia's mom, apparently, rents the studio apartment that was bought with Nastia's money to some strangers for 25,000 rubles per month  (while Nastia lives in a rented apartment).

Nastia's hubby took her last name! He's Grishin now. His former last name was Kozel (which means "male goat" and is a curseword in Russian), so I guess that was the real reason he changed it.

Nastia says she has no idea where's the rest of the money (besides what was spent on buying property). She thinks her mom didn't spend all of it, just hid it somewhere.

Nastia's family don't know her current address, because she's afraid of them.
They show the apartment then and it's not actually an apartment - it's sort of a motel room or rather two rooms (bedroom and living room) and there's no kitchen or fridge. Often the water doesn't run so they can't shower. They mostly eat at their friends or out, because they can't prepare any food in their room. They can't afford to rent anything better at the moment.
Nastia took her medals with her, but the cups stayed at the parents' apartment and her mom doesn't let her take them. Nastia can't go to the apartment and take the rest of her stuff either because her mom changed the locks.

Nastia's friend tells about the time when Nastia had a knee surgery and spent two weeks at a hospital. Mom visited Nastia only once and didn't even bring food (food in Russian hospitals is usually terrible, so it's customary for family and friends to bring something better to eat to the patients). No one came to take Nastia from the hospital and she had to drive herself home even though she was on crutches and in a lot of pain.

The neighbors of Nastia's parents say that her mom had problems with alcohol. They say Nastia's brother was in jail for robberies.

Zelikson calls and says that Nastia's mom was always super controlling. The host asks whether Nastia could be lying about the whole situation. Zelikson says she could be and that he doubts that Nastia ever earned that much money. I guess, if Nastia returns to training, she won't go back to him after that. He thinks Nastia could become a good coach and he offers to help her with that.

Nastia is a fourth-year sports journalism student at the Moscow State University (the degree takes 5 years in Russia). She has good grades. She says her mom was against paying for college. If Nastia went to another college to become a gymnastics coach, like almost all Russian gymnasts do, she would study for free, so, I guess, her mom wasn't happy with the idea of paying for Nastia's degree (MSU is a very expensive university, since it's very prestigious). Nastia's mom paid for the current semester in February (which was after Nastia filed the case in court) - with Nastia's money, I think, since the parents are not employed.

Nastia's lawyer comes. This time it's a man (unlike other videos where there was a woman), so, it seems, she has two lawyers. He says that Nastia's mom could go to jail for up to 10 years because the case will be tried in the criminal court. He says the sum of 22 million  - Nastia's earnings throughout her career - is documented in the bank accounts history, they have all the proof.

He says Victor (Nastya's hubby) now works three jobs in order to pay off their debt (for renovations and legal fees) and feed Nastia and the baby.

People in the studio get agitated when they hear that Nastia's mom might be facing jail time and start yelling at Nastia. They think that jail time is too extreme and Nastia must stop pursuing the criminal case.
The lawyer says that they're ok with dropping the case as long as Nastia's mom giver the property to Nastia voluntarily.

When asked if Nastia's ok with her mom possible going to jail, Nastia says she doesn't want this outcome, she would prefer to avoid it.

An expert lawyer says that the criminal court will probably reject the case and that it'll have to be tried in the civil court.


Another hour-long special was done by the 1st channel. I haven't watched it yet. I'll see if there's anything new and, maybe, will add a summary for it in a couple of days.



4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for summarizing all this info! I feel really bad for her, her baby and hubby.

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  2. Who is Zelikson? Nastia's coach?
    Nastia is really too fragile and just a 21 old student, it's really not weird that her mom acted like this, the whole family is a big problem. so glad she involved in gymnastic, otherwise, she would definitely have a more difficult childhood! The mom and dad basically had 4 children, exploit them, send them to sport for making money, feeling extremely unsafe, wants to hold the money-making machine Nsstia tightly, so it's not strange that her brothers are jobless and had alcohol. So it's very obvious that her mom wants her to marry a football player, that's the way her mom makes free money! After her fell in team final foor, i've noticed that she is always easily nervous in international competition, probably due to part of the family factor, there is no warm place when coming home! I always feel such a waste for Ghrishina to leave the sport so early, but now i'm glad she got married while in university because she has her own family now! I studied in psychology, it's normal that this kind of family does exist in the society! What makes me feel sad is that if talented gymnast is viewed as the property of the country in Russia, why there would be no one to help Nastia while she is still in National team? She is just a minor, and is easily manipulated by indecent parents! All the girls in National team are all teenagers, they should get education and under good care by adults! It is also quite unbelievable what Katrin Sokova suffered from training, why no one is paying attention to this talented girl? Something had gone wrong severely, and hope there would be a revolution in Russian team.

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  3. Here is the video her mom made!
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfkgLvlsWSuxJ1Qj6FVW7ag

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