The mother of Elena Makarova, the alleged victim in the 'Bariloche sect' case, for which Konstantin Rudnev remains detained and 21 other people are implicated, denies that her daughter was victimized by any criminal group and supports the young woman's statements that she came to Argentina to escape an abusive partner. Irina Makarova wrote a letter rejecting the claims of the Bariloche Prosecutor's Office, which maintains its position that Elena was the alleged victim of the 'sect.' The document, presented to the Justice system and accessed by the Noticias Argentinas news agency, reconstructs the family history and the context that led her daughter to travel to the country pregnant. Far from describing a plot of recruitment or exploitation, the woman asserts that the decision to leave Russia responded to a situation of extreme domestic violence. 'I asked for help to get my daughter out of an environment of aggression and fear,' she stated. Irina began her statement with an intimate portrait of her life and her daughter's life in Russia: 'I am married to Sergey Makarov, we had two children, Elena and Pavel, and we always lived in Solikamsk.' According to her account, the young woman moved at age 16 to a family apartment in Perm to study. It was there that she began a relationship with a young man named Ivan, who would end up becoming, according to her mother, the beginning of a story marked by violence. The mother described a domestic scenario traversed by humiliations, threats, and alcohol consumption. 'The conditions in which they lived were of severe family violence,' she stated. Likewise, she added: 'Ivan constantly threatened her, told her 'without me you are nobody' and insulted her at the top of his lungs.' According to her testimony, the situation worsened when the young man drank, which happened frequently. In the midst of that climate, Elena became pregnant in July 2024, but that news did not bring relief, but rather tension. 'Ivan wanted her to have an abortion and told her he didn't want that baby,' she related. According to the letter, the young woman was sick, weakened by pancreatitis and subjected to a relationship that plunged her into a deep depression. Irina explained that it was then that the idea of sending her daughter abroad appeared. The intermediary was a friend of hers, Nadezhda Beliakova, known as Angelina, who had planned to travel to Argentina. 'I asked her please to help me get my daughter out of Russia and the violence she was suffering,' explained the mother, who assured that the trip represented an opportunity for reconstruction. The choice of destination was not accidental: 'In Russia we all know that to go to Argentina you don't need a visa, that healthcare is free and that it is a peaceful country.' In a context marked by the war with Ukraine and the militarization of society, the woman saw in that country a safe alternative. 'It was a place without war, where my daughter could have her baby in peace,' she maintained. From Bariloche, according to her account, Elena began to regain some stability. 'We talked almost every day and I heard her getting better,' Irina recounted. The young woman walked in nature, ate better, and her health seemed to improve. 'She sounded happy, as she was before.'
