The Sochi resident defends the right to a family plot in the Supreme Court.

Sochi resident Alexander Batalin complained to the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of Russia about the refusal to transfer his cassation appeal to the civil cases panel. He insists that legal norms were ignored in favor of a Kuban judge, whose mother is claiming a land plot belonging to his family.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on April 3, the cassation court overturned the decision in the case of the disputed land plot in the Sochi gardening partnership "Kommunalnik" and sent the case for a new hearing in the Khosta District Court. The court did not satisfy Batalin's claim to recognize the sale of the neighboring garden plot to a woman who is seeking to build a road through Batalin's plot as invalid. The arguments that the neighboring plot was previously sold under a power of attorney from the deceased owner were not taken into account by the judge. In August, the appellate instance upheld the decision of the Khosta District Court, rejecting the claims to recognize the transactions with the land plot as invalid.

The Khosta District Court of Sochi partially satisfied Batalin's claim against Nina Kuznetsova, Tatyana Kharchenko, and Olga Besedina on April 1, 2025, regarding the termination of ownership rights to the plot and house and the recognition of the transactions as invalid. The Krasnodar Regional Court upheld this decision on November 20, 2025, rejecting the defendants' appeal.

The Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction in Krasnodar overturned the decisions of both instances on March 19, 2026, and sent the case for a new hearing – this time the first instance court refused Batalin. On August 17, 2026, Supreme Court Judge Sergey Astashov issued ruling No. 18-KF26-1519-K4, denying Batalin's request to transfer the cassation appeal for consideration by the civil cases panel, thereby agreeing with the lower courts.

Position of the Supreme Court

In the ruling dated August 17, a copy of which is available to the “Caucasian Knot”, Judge Astashov indicated that the cassation court acted within its powers by overturning the acts of the lower courts due to incomplete investigation of the circumstances of the case.

“Not all circumstances relevant to the case have been established, in particular, the arguments of Kuznetsova N. A. regarding the good faith acquisition of the land plot have not been assessed, and that the plaintiff has no right to challenge the disputed transactions (...) Moreover, the courts' conclusions that the statute of limitations has not expired are premature, based on incorrect interpretation of the norms of substantive law,” the document signed by Astashov states.

The judge did not see any significant violations of legal norms that could serve as grounds for overturning the ruling of the Fourth Cassation Court in the arguments of the appeal.

“Either they do not know the law, or they simulate ignorance”

Disagreeing with Astashov's conclusions, Batalin submitted a repeated complaint on October 1, this time to the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court. In it, he claims that the cassation court's annulment of the decisions of the first two instances was unlawful: in his opinion, the Fourth Cassation Court effectively re-evaluated the evidence and exceeded its powers, siding with Kuznetsova as the mother of the acting judge.

“[Judges] either fundamentally do not know the elementary norms of law, according to which 'two plus two equals four', or they consciously simulate this ignorance in the interests of high-ranking relatives of the defendant,” the complaint states.

The plaintiff insists that the courts of all instances did not thoroughly investigate the evidence, failing to establish the fact of illegal alienation of the plot, which has been in his family's possession since the 1960s. Batalin requests to overturn Judge Astashov's ruling, annul the ruling of the Fourth Cassation Court dated March 19, and uphold the original decision of the Khosta District Court dated April 1, 2025.

Position of the defendants

According to the case materials, Nina Kuznetsova and her representatives insist on the legality of acquiring rights to the plot: she considers herself a good faith purchaser and claims that Batalin missed the statute of limitations for challenging the transactions.

On the Supreme Court's website, Batalin's complaint is listed as received, but the date of its consideration has not yet been set.

“Very simple, but clearly corrupt questions are being funded by the budget. Unnecessary bureaucracy is being tightened up out of thin air. More than a dozen judges of various instances have been unable for over a year to follow the letter of the law, to recognize that the law is the same for everyone, and to put an end to a matter that should not even be considered in court, because there are no legal grounds for transferring part of the Batalin plot for access to Kuznetsova's plot,” Batalin stated.

Comments from Nina Kuznetsova, Tatyana Kharchenko, Olga Besedina, as well as representatives of the Fourth Cassation Court and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation are not yet available to the “Caucasian Knot”.