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Dancing With The Stars pro Gleb Savchenko is living a custody nightmare.
Three years ago, his ex-wife was allowed to temporarily move overseas for work.
His daughters are now 15 and 8. She hasn’t brought them back, as they’d agreed.
Savchenko is asking the court to set things right.
One year in Hong Kong has turned into three … and counting
TMZ reports that Savchenko has filed a request for emergency child custody.
The professional dancer shares two daughters, Olivia and Zlata, with his ex-wife, Elena Samodanova.
When the former spouses split, they agreed that the girls would temporarily relocate to Hong Kong with their mom.
According to Savchenko’s filing, both daughters were supposed to return to the United States by June 30, 2024.
When that never happened, he writes in his filing, Samodanova refused to return them. And he says that he has paperwork to back things up.
According to Savchenko’s filing, his ex-wife signed a Post Judgment Agreement in 2023.
That agreement allowed her to “temporarily” move both children with her to Hong Kong.
This was to last for a period of one year, and was simply so that she could work on a project in the area.
But Savchenko accuses his ex of having “obtained permanent Hong Kong residency, enrolled the children in an expensive private school, got the children a cat, became engaged, and had another child with her fiance.”
All of this amounts to putting down roots on the other side of the planet, he argues.
He says that Olivia does not want to return to her mother
“This has functionally forced me to travel to Hong Kong each year to visit my children,” Savchenko lamented in the filing.
He says that this is something “which I have consistently done despite Elena’s efforts taken to drastically limit my access to our daughters.”
As such, he is asking the court for “temporary sole legal and sole physical custody” of Olivia, who is 15, pending further court involvement.
According to Savchenko, this is what Olivia wants. (In the US, a 15-year-old is generally given real input in their custody situation, with some exceptions such as child safety.)
His filing says his ex has made verbally abusive and disparaging comments to their daughter. He also writes that he fears Olivia’s wrongful retention or even abduction if she is forced to spend time with Samodanova.
For now, Savchenko is focusing on his request for full custody on Olivia, as she is currently with him. 8-year-old Zlata seems to still be with Samodanova.
The court has ordered both exes to attend a child custody mediation on August 5, followed by a formal hearing later that month.
Most child-abduction cases are from parents or relatives, often due to custody disputes. International custody spats can be particularly painful.
Sometimes, one parent wrongfully retains kids because it’s the only way to keep them safe. Other times, a bad parent wrongfully retains the children because, if they follow the rules, the courts will protect their children from them.
But many cases involve parents who love their children but no longer love one another. The kids are just caught in between.