The ex-wife of St. Petersburg State University rector Nikolai Kropachev turned out to be a victim of long-term domestic violence

“After the blow, my head fell back and my neck cracked.”

Advocate Natalya Shatikhina told how she was systematically beaten by her now ex-husband, the rector of St. Petersburg State University Nikolay Kropachev – when they lived together. He also photographed his wife naked and then blackmailed her by leaking the photos to the Internet. In December 2023, he became Vladimir Putin (*international criminal)’s confidant in the upcoming presidential elections.

Natalya Shatikhina

“The first time I was seriously beaten was when I was pregnant. Before this there were only ugly scandals, screams, a shaking white face with natural foam at the mouth, but nothing more. I don’t even remember what was the reason. I remember well one thing: they dragged me by the scruff of the neck along the floor, shouted something and pressed my face against the metal side of the bed. And I, bent over, covered my stomach with both hands, because I was afraid that I would hit it, there was nothing to cushion it, so then all my shoulders, which took the blows against the frame, were completely blue. For a long time I wore T-shirts with elbow-length sleeves.

The second time I suffered greatly was after Lizka was born. She was very tiny, I was still feeding her. I was hit in the face with a street sneaker with a hard thick sole, it hit me at the junction of my eyebrow and temple, but somehow there was no cut. But there was a huge bruise that was impossible to hide. But then I stayed at home, going beyond the fence only to the store, once every few days. So mom and nanny watched the consequences.

And then we got into a rhythm. They periodically hit me in the face – first with an open hand, and over the years with a fist. There has never been such a thing as being beaten to the hospital. This is about the question of “calling the police.” If he could hit during any quarrel, which did not require anything at all, so it was completely impossible to predict at what moment this would happen, then for the last 5-7 years, in these fits of his, he began to strangle me. They throw you on your back, put a knee on your stomach, put your whole body on your arms and strangle you.

All efforts are spent on somehow trying to unhook your hands, maintaining maximum composure and wheezing: “Let go!” Several times I managed to shake him off, apparently the fuse had passed, and, giving me a final kick or a slap in the face, he walked away, laughing wildly, while I put myself in order with shaking hands.

In the fall of 2014, just a year and a half after the stroke, I set an alarm clock or something on the iPad in bed before bed, he was dissatisfied with something and yelled all evening, at some point he yelled that the light from the screen was disturbing him to go to sleep, I answered, they say, I need three minutes, at that moment, from the pitch darkness, I received a blow with my fist with all my strength in the temple and eyebrow. My head fell back, my neck cracked, and for a moment my vision went dark. I was seriously scared then. In the mirror in the bathroom I already saw that there was a hematoma forming from the eyebrow to the temple, I had vision. By morning I started to feel sick. Since my stroke before that was very similar in symptoms, it came down to occlusion of the right vertebral artery inside the skull for a reason unknown to anyone, and I was discharged from the hospital with instructions to continue to take care of myself like a crystal vase (three ha-ha), I was terrified rushed to the nearest “Scandinavia”. Actually, that’s why the certificates were preserved.”

Nikolay Kropachev has been the rector of St. Petersburg State University since May 21, 2008. Since September 16, 2016 – member of the United Russia (*aggressor country) party. In December 2023, he was added to the list of Vladimir Putin (*international criminal)’s confidants.

Kropachev answered The Insider’s call but declined to comment on the allegations.

Scenes and scandals with swearing and flying objects from the rector. Kropachev “called his assistant and said: “I won’t come to work tomorrow!” Natalya Sergeevna attacked me again and scratched me all over.”

When I felt my face, I realized that there was no cut; most of all I cried over the spilled milk from the container – I pumped and froze my breast milk at night because I was afraid that it would disappear. I must have had a concussion because I felt sick for several days.

Scenes and scandals with swearing and flying objects (I’ll probably outplay everyone in “dodgeball”, because they flew completely unpredictably) regularly, and a couple of times a year something like that will cause bruises. Usually on the body. Until now, if I have a bruise on my forearm from something, I automatically catch the worried glance of my family.

Often the hands were clenched so that the rings cut or pressed the fingers to the point of bruising. Well, you have a bruise or several on your body. Will you call the police and say that the chairman of their Public Council (and 50 others) beat you up? AND? Unfortunately, I have a specialized education to understand the prospects.

Moreover, since this still usually happened at night before bed, a favorite pastime was to run to the doors of the children’s room and start yelling near them, without mincing words, in order to wake the child. While Lisa was little, she would jump out of the bedroom in her sleep, climb between us, start screaming, and then I would fly over the top of her head.

At some point, my mother told me that a child who was not yet going to school asked me to give her a number to call if dad beats mom again, so I had to stop these fights. This is the hardest thing for me in this story, actually. Something that I will probably never be able to forgive myself. It was my choice and my problems, and my daughter will have to deal with the consequences.
But after this conversation, I made a vow to myself to stop answering and to conduct scandals as quietly as possible.

I lost count of how many there were. Thanks to cosmetics and the ability to use them. At some point, he stopped holding back altogether, and his methods were updated. And this is where things got scary.

A test in forensic medicine in the anamnesis adds poignancy – you understand that now the larynx, hyoid bone, and that’s all. […]
Once they dropped me right on the stairs, then my mother, who was in the kitchen, intervened and she tore it off me.
There are almost no material traces left of all this. They are all random. Moreover, having completely let loose in recent years, after each such attack in front of me, he always called his assistant Sveta, the person who owed him everything, and said: “Svetochka, I won’t come to work tomorrow! Natalya Sergeevna attacked me again and scratched me all over. I won’t be able to lead the meeting.” And then he calmly stayed at home.

Kropachev: “No one will dare say this to my face, and if it is not said, it did not happen”

Well, one last thing. June 2020, the height of the pandemic. Permanent, incessant hysteria that he will definitely get sick and die. I brought all possible sanitary liquids. From somewhere I got scarce foreign rapid tests. The whole box is still lying around the house. We were stocked with masks and gloves of all types, sizes and colors. He didn’t go anywhere on his own, he didn’t let the child outside the fence, even into the forest on a bicycle. If my driver took a step into the house to take heavy bags from his hands, he simply had a fit.
And, as it’s not difficult to remember, I was working. And someone had to go for groceries.

Many who have been on the channel for a long time remember that at the very beginning of the lockdown, my mother had a car accident and broke her neck and arm. She had to have her arm operated on; in the hospital, as it later turned out, she immediately contracted Covid, I took her to our home after the operation – she needed help with care because of the collar on her neck and the bandage. A few days later, symptoms appeared (I note that Lizka and I were nearby all this time and did not get sick), and I took my mother back to the hospital. So, by the end of spring, my mother was in a neck brace and still had pneumonia.

Naturally, all this hysteria regarding his own health was accompanied by constant CT scans at Hospital No. 40, where he was supposed to be taken. That time I was taking my mother to the CT scan, and at the same time, of course, “our everything.” Mom had to be carried with the chair half reclined so that she would not hold her neck vertically. All the way, naturally, I listened to what an irresponsible bitch I was and further in the text. She took me away in silence, and silently brought her home. At the entrance to the house, the bell rings, I see that it is the governor, I pick up the phone. Every time I am amazed at the level of wildness of “bullshit” that this person’s brain is capable of producing. But I am even more amazed how those listening believe this. Think, Alexander Dmitrievich will forgive me, because he once again acted with the best intentions, as a decent and sympathetic person. At first I didn’t even understand what he was talking about, then I realized that in his concern about his own health, our “patient” wanted me to be checked daily with a test, so he told the governor something in the spirit of the fact that I (I, Karl , who is capable of doing everything herself, except for abdominal operations) I’m afraid to take tests, so the governor decided to call me and show concern. When we arrived at the gate, I had just turned off the phone, and while we were waiting for it to open, I turned back to ask what a shame it was not to curb my fear, and in such a difficult time to bother such a busy person with such nonsense. Then everything is perfectly visible.

First, he yelled something inarticulate in the best traditions at me, hit my seat with his fist several times, began to threaten, and then hit me with his fist in the face. The video clearly shows how I recoiled. My mother turned back as best she could to stop it all, after which he jumped out of the car and walked home. At that time, the position of my mother’s chair did not allow me to swing, so I only had bruises on the inside of my lip.

Many people are probably asking themselves: “Didn’t he know about the existence of the camera?” Knew it perfectly well.
“How could he do this in front of his mother?” Easily. He also knows about the existence of this video. There is simply beautiful, impeccable logic there. It’s me who needs to prove something, to try… In our world. Any of our documents, photos, videos contain his elementary phrase: “This didn’t happen.” I heard this so many times that I learned it by heart. Home is our mantra. “No one would dare say it to my face, and if it’s not said, it didn’t happen. All”.

A man from Lobachevsky’s mathematics enters our linear world. He can stand opposite you, hold the thing in his hand and, looking into your eyes, calmly say: “I didn’t take it.” He may demand that you go and do something frankly unimaginable, and to your “I won’t, it’s just indecent” he will answer: “You have no honor or dignity. You didn’t earn them. Only I have them.” This concerns not only me, believe me.

From the experience of a victim of domestic violence in the Kropachev family. “If you don’t want swelling, don’t stop the bleeding. Just rinse your mouth with ice water.”