A woman who purchased a luxury Moscow apartment from pop singer Larisa Dolina has asked court authorities to forcibly evict the performer after she allegedly refused to hand over the keys, Russian state media reported Monday.
“We are waiting for the official decision to open enforcement proceedings,” Svetlana Sviridenko, a lawyer for buyer Polina Lurye, told the state-run TASS news agency. Sviridenko said she sent an eviction request on behalf of her client to court bailiffs.
Lurye, a 34-year-old entrepreneur, bought the five-room apartment in Moscow’s prestigious Khamovniki district from Dolina in 2024. It was later discovered that the 70-year-old singer had been deceived into selling her apartment by fraudsters posing as FSB agents.
However, the scammers were also in contact with Lurye, who, unaware of the fraud scheme, paid them 112 million rubles ($1.4 million) for Donlina’s apartment.
A subsequent court battle between Lurye and Dolina over who rightfully held ownership of the Moscow apartment captured headlines in Russia for months, and the case eventually worked its way up to Russia's Supreme Court.
In December, the Supreme Court ruled that Lurye was the apartment’s rightful owner, which was seen as a rare win for those without Kremlin connections in Russia’s judicial system.
Under Russian law, once enforcement proceedings are opened, Dolina will have five days to leave the apartment voluntarily. If she refuses, bailiffs are authorized to remove her and her belongings by force.
Dolina’s lawyer, Maria Pukhova, dismissed the request for bailiff involvement as an unnecessary “publicity stunt” despite claiming that the singer had been prepared to hand over the apartment as of Jan. 5. She did not explain why the keys had not yet been transferred to Lurye.
Russian tabloids reported that Dolina has been vacationing in the United Arab Emirates since early January and was expected to return to Russia later this month.
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