Russia's Supreme Court lets father keep daughter taken to Russia without permission

Russia's Supreme Court ruled in July 2026 that Russian citizen Alexey Yermakov does not have to return his daughter to her mother in France, even though he took the child to Russia without permission, the newspaper Kommersant reported. The decision overturns the direction of lower courts, which had ordered the girl's return under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Background of the case

Veronika Tishkova, a Ukrainian citizen, married Yermakov in 2018. The couple lived in Kyiv, where their daughter was born. They divorced in 2021, and the child stayed with her mother. Soon after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Tishkova moved to France with her 3-year-old daughter, while Yermakov stayed in Ukraine.

In June 2023, he asked a Kyiv court to require his ex-wife to bring the girl to Ukraine every six weeks; the court refused. He also pursued legal action in France, and in April 2024 agreed that the child could live there permanently. The following March he requested permission to take her on holiday to Turkey and Slovakia, promising to bring her back within two weeks. He did not, and it soon emerged that he had taken her to Russia.

In July 2025, Tishkova asked a court in Novosibirsk to order the girl's return. During the proceedings, the girl received Russian citizenship at her father's request. The court nevertheless sided with the mother and ordered Yermakov to return the child to France. Higher courts rejected his appeals.

The Supreme Court's reasoning

Yermakov then turned to the Supreme Court, which found that the girl had adapted to life in Russia and that a move to France could harm her. It cited the Hague Convention provision allowing a court to refuse return if there is a grave risk of physical or psychological harm to the child. The court also noted that the girl holds Russian citizenship and that France is an 'unfriendly' country and a member of NATO and the European Union.

Tishkova has challenged the ruling, and it is now being reviewed by the Supreme Court's Presidium. Her lawyer, Dmitry Litvinsky, said the court put its own political interpretation above applicable law. Yermakov's lawyer, Andrey Targashov, said the position is in line with international practice.