Divorce isn't such a tragedy. A tragedy's staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce.
Jennifer Weiner
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Family Law: divorce proceedings, conclusion of marriage (Russia)
When dealing with the divorce, does the Russian Court hearing the divorce automatically deal with other related issues such as division of matrimonial assets, maintenance (alimony) for the ex-wife, maintenance for the child, custody of the child, care and control of the child (which parent the child resides with) and access to the child (the nonresidential parent’s visitation rights to the child)? Or does either party have to file a different application for these reliefs, separate from the divorce itself?

Family law : divorce and division of property. (Russia)
I just discovered there is a divorce case against me in small claims court. The final hearing is scheduled for next Monday, but I just received the summons.

I realize my wife is using the small claims court to get the divorce and escape from dividing any property with me. She wants to keep it all.

Can anything be done to stop this proceeding and make her file in St. Petersburg? The grounds can include incorrect establishment of jurisdiction, faulty notice of service, or deliberate filing false address. I live in St. Petersburg. She lives in Moscow. The case filed in Voronezh.

I am US citizen. I have permanent registration in St. Petersburg. We married in Voronezh. I want to make sure our divorce also settles a division of property as all of the properties are in her name.

My translator is checking the court site every day. There was no information of this case on the site by yesterday.

This is a surprise. I never received any notice of the Voronezh filing from the court or from anyone. I was never served.

I know my wife is using the small claims court to get the divorce and escape from dividing any property with me. She wants to keep it all.

In a “division of property” can I claim, as sole and separate personal property, specific Real Estate purchased in Russia during the marriage since they were paid for with funds from the sale of my home in Pennsylvania that I owned before the marriage?

These properties are in the name of my wife, as I did not yet have temporary or permanent residency when purchased, and I was told non-residents of Russia could not own property.

Based on the special plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which considered complex issues in claims for divorce (№ 15 of November 5, 1998). At this plenum, the following clarifications were given: common joint property, although acquired during the marriage, but purchased with personal funds of each of the spouses, which belonged to him before marriage, is not common. And yet there will be no common “things for individual use, with the exception of Jewelry and other luxury items”.

From all that has been said, the Supreme Court draws the following conclusion: a legally significant circumstance in deciding whether to classify property as common property of the spouses is what money it was bought with, personal or common, and under what transactions, paid, or gratuitous, one of the spouses acquired this property during the period of marriage. Property received by one of the spouses in marriage through gratuitous civil law transactions (this is inheritance, donation, privatization) is not the common property of the spouses. The acquisition of property during the period of marriage, but with funds owned by one of the spouses personally, also excludes such property from the common joint property regime.

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