Golyanovo slaves

The criminal network recruited victims through multiple methods. Accomplices in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan placed job advertisements promising high salaries for work in Moscow grocery stores. The group deliberately targeted orphans, vulnerable women, and individuals from impoverished backgrounds. Upon arrival in Moscow, the victims' passports, mobile phones, and personal belongings were immediately confiscated by the store owners.

Captives were forced to work shifts of up to 20–21 hours per day, almost entirely on their feet. Sleep was limited to three or four hours on the floors of tightly packed storage rooms. Captives were fed stale bread, water, and expired food; eating without permission resulted in severe beatings. The premises were heavily monitored by video surveillance to prevent escape attempts. Victims were forbidden from speaking to one another or to customers beyond basic service greetings.

Victims were subjected to systematic torture and severe physical violence, which included beatings with wrenches, skewers, and rolling pins, breaking of bones, and being doused with boiling water. Medical care was systematically denied, resulting in permanent deformities, improperly healed fractures, and chronic conditions.

Female captives were systematically raped by owners, relatives, and guards. Women who became pregnant were frequently forced to undergo late-stage abortions. As a result of coerced [...] acts, captive women gave birth to approximately ten children while in captivity. Children were routinely separated from their mothers, registered under the perpetrators' names, and subjected to physical violence and abuse. The son of one victim suffered from untreated broken legs, severe rickets, and was diagnosed with battered child syndrome. Several captives and children reportedly died or disappeared without a trace during the operation's two-decade span.

The first known victims were recruited in the late 1990s. In 2002, following an escape by an underage girl, law enforcement freed several victims found in severe physical condition. Sholpan Istanbekova was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment but was pardoned after serving two years. Despite this, the criminal network continued its operations under the other family members.

On 30 October 2012, activists from the anti-slavery movement "Alternativa", led by Oleg Melnikov, accompanied by journalists from Novaya Gazeta, raided the store on Novosibirskaya Street. The group overcame resistance from the owners and liberated twelve individuals (nine women and three men) from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. During the raid, the perpetrators attempted to abduct several workers and children through back exits, though most were later recovered.

Following the liberation, police officers at the Golyanovo station interrogated the freed captives for 14 hours and attempted to detain them for deportation. The continued presence of journalists and activists prevented the victims from being returned to the traffickers.

Despite the highly publicized 2012 raid, the stores continued to operate and enslave new victims. In 2013, Zhanibek Kanybek, an 18-year-old from Kazakhstan, was enslaved for two and a half years; he was tortured with electric shocks after escape attempts and was only released in 2015 when his physical condition rendered him unprofitable.

In December 2016, Nesibeli Ibragimova, a 21-year-old Kazakhstani citizen, successfully escaped after eight months of captivity, revealing that the perpetrators were still operating with impunity, holding multiple victims, including children.

In November 2012, the Preobrazhenskoye District Prosecutor's Office closed the criminal case against the Istanbekov family, citing an "absence of corpus delicti," concluding that the victims had "consented" to their treatment. Over the following years, Russian authorities issued 32 formal refusals to initiate criminal proceedings. Investigators ignored physical evidence, refused to review surveillance footage, and declined to conduct medical examinations of the victims. Instead of pursuing the perpetrators, the Investigative Committee opened inquiries into the NGOs assisting the victims.

Kazakhstani authorities opened criminal cases against the store owners and placed them on a wanted list, but the investigations were suspended due to a lack of cooperation from Russia. In 2017, an Uzbekistani court convicted a recruiter associated with the network for human trafficking.

In November 2016, former captives filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). On 10 December 2024, the ECHR issued its judgment in the case F.M. and Others v. Russia. The Court unanimously found that the applicants were victims of cross-border human trafficking and servitude. It ruled that Russia had violated Article 4 (prohibition of slavery) and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court ordered Russia to pay a total of €319,731.75 in compensation to the victims.

On 15 May 2025, three UN Special Rapporteurs addressed a formal communication to the Russian government, condemning the systemic failure to intervene and the ongoing impunity of the perpetrators. The UN gave Russia 60 days to respond; no response was received.