Lawyer Natalya Shatikhina said in her telegram channel that she was subjected to systematic domestic violence by her ex-husband, St. Petersburg State University rector Nikolai Kropachev. “Rotunda” drew attention to her publications.
Shatikhina reported that Kropachev beat her for the first time during pregnancy in 2005: “I remember well one thing: they dragged me by the scruff of the neck along the floor, shouted something and pressed my face against the metal side of the bed. And I, bent over, covered my stomach with both hands, because I was afraid that I would hit it, there was nothing to cushion it, so then all my shoulders, which took the blows against the frame, were completely blue. For a long time I wore T-shirts with elbow-length sleeves.”
After this incident, physical and psychological violence continued, as follows from the lawyer’s story. Shatikhina writes that Kropachev hit her in the face with the sole of his shoe for the second time after the birth of her daughter. According to the woman, in 2014, six months after she had a stroke, her husband hit her “with all his might” in the temple and eyebrow because the light from her screen “prevented him from sleeping.”
Then Shatikhina went to the Scandinavia private clinic, where she was diagnosed with a concussion and hematoma. Shatikhina’s lawyer showed “Rotunda” this certificate, as well as several photographs of a woman with a broken face — already from 2018.
In addition, back in December 2023, Shatikhina published fragments of audio recordings of conversations with her husband on her channel.
“I can’t sleep, anger takes over me again, I want to strangle you or kill you. <…> Last night I was standing there, thinking: knock you down, suffocate you with a pillow — that’s all. He stood there for about ten minutes, probably: “Should I strangle this bitch?” Today, if I stand, I’ll strangle you. <…> I hate you and want to take my anger out on you. If I had the opportunity now, I would beat you with pleasure. If I had the opportunity, I would cut you. To pieces,” says a male voice on the recording.
The audio also contains threats to post naked photos of Shatikhina, “kick her out” from her job at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University, where she taught, and “get a thrill from it.”
Shatikhina herself showed in a telegram a photo with hand injuries and a video from a surveillance camera in which a man similar to Kropachev swung at a woman in a car.
“After promising to kill me four times, I just went and wrote a will. You understand, he is the chairman of the Public Council at the Central Internal Affairs Directorate. All my life he told me that “even if I kill you, no one will come,” added Shatikhina.
The lawyer told “Rotunda” that after the divorce in 2022, Kropachev is trying to take it from Shatikhina through the court property. At the end of the same year, Shatikhina resigned from St. Petersburg State University “of her own free will” — before that, she said that they stopped coordinating business trips for her.
As Fontanka wrote, in 2023, the St. Petersburg police opened a criminal case for threats to kill (Article 119 of the Criminal Code) because of the message “Stop being greedy! The coffin has no pockets,” which Nikolai Kropachev received on WhatsApp. Among those who could send him such a message, the rector also indicated his ex-wife.