Girls Recruited in Russia to Dance in Yerevan Strip Clubs The Kentron and Nork Marash Administrative Court has been hearing the case of Yelena Kalyakinyan and her 27 year-old daughter Vera, residents of the Russian city of Volgograd, for the past year. The mother and daughter have been charges with trafficking 24 Russian women Yerevan to work in various night clubs against their will as striptease dancers and for appropriating their wages. Fifteen of the girls entered a civil suit, seeking the wages taken from them – in all about 11 million AMD, $34,000 and 20,000 Russian rubles. According to the indictment, Yelena Kalyakinyan purchased a semi-basement site on Raffi Street in Yerevan back in 2006 at 7.5 million AMD to launder the money seized from the girls. Also, during a three year period starting in 2005, Yelena wired $11,250 via bank transfers to her husband Vadim Taranov and her daughter Vera, who had returned to Volgograd. Court records expose money trail In addition, she opened an account in an Armenian bank with an initial deposit of 12.5 million AMD. Her daughter Vera used some of the wages taken from the girls to purchases 3.3 million AMD worth of gold jewelry, opened a bank account with 6.5 million AMD and from 2006-20008 periodically sent a total of $12,400 to her mother back in Volgograd and her husband. “I have been working since the age of 17, and those monies and jewellery are the fruit of my labor. Some of the jewelry I brought from Volgograd, a gift from grandmother. I purchased some in Yerevan and the rest were presents,” testified Vera at a trial session last July 6. She stated that the monies wire transferred to Volgograd belonged to her mother and on a few occasions, at her mother’s request, she sent money to her step-father Vadim Taranov. Vera says that she was ten years-old when Vadim moved into their house and since they never really got along, she accepted an offer to relocate to Yerevan and began to work as a dancer. “I started to save some money to buy an apartment here, at least one room, because I wanted to stay in Yerevan,” she says. Her mother Yelena Kaylakinyan, born in 1962, started to produce shows back in 2003 with the participation of her daughter and other girls. The mother also received an invitation from Armenia and in the same year established “Yelena Ltd.”, in Volgograd with her daughter. Employment agency promises “glamour” jobs The company advertised in a paper called “All for You”, promising high paying jobs in Yerevan. The indictment reads that from February 2005 to March 2008, Yelena and Vera Kaylakinyan   deceived 24 women who responded to the adverts with fraudulent promises of free dance lessons, free or discounted travel, housing accommodation, and high paying work. It goes on to say that the mother and daughter signed contracts with the women and transported them to Yerevan with the aim of exploitation. The two are charged with holding the women against their will in various apartments and of seizing their passports and preying on their vulnerability, getting them involved in involuntary work and other forms of sexual exploitation. “The entire problem was that there were more than 24 girls. The rest worked normally, were paid, and returned to Russia,” says Marineh Tovmasyan, attorney for the charged. She says that the intention of Yelena and Vera, when buying the basement space on Raffi Street, was to produce their own shows. This leads one to infer that at least a majority of the girls from Volgograd were to dance at the new club, which wasn’t conducive to those night clubs in Yerevan which also made money from the same Russian girls. “Perhaps certain people had to frame my clients,” says attorney Tovmasyan, adding that she doesn’t blame the pre-examination unity since “investigators today are tools”. Defense attorney points to contradictions in testimony Before hiring Marineh Tovmasyan, the indicted mother and daughter had gone through other lawyers. Tovmasyan notes that when assumed their defense, she went through the taped recordings of the testimony given by the plaintiffs during the pre-trial examination and came across glaring contradictions. She says that neither the prosecuting attorney nor the defense had petitioned the court be made public. The attorney says that the court itself overlooked these contradictions. “For example, one of the girls said ‘We were going hungry. We only ate once a week.’ Another said ‘They fed us just fine.’”, the attorney noted. “They all lived in the same conditions, in the same house as the Kalyakinyans. They would take turns cleaning and cooking. I even went to the store where they’d always buy their groceries. Every other day, some of the girls would go to the Yerevan City market in Kanaker and stock up on groceries.” Marineh Tovmasyan is amazed at how the mother and especially Vera, the daughter who is slight of build, could manage to beat the girls who numbered 17 or 18. “They could have overpowered them at any time.” Could two women keep all those girls under wraps? “How can you picture such a thing? That for months on end the girls let themselves be exploited in such a way? Some even went back to Volgograd and then returned to Yerevan. Some even returned with a sister to work in Yerevan.” One of the girls, Anna, told the investigators that Vera convinced her to make the decision to move to Yerevan. Allegedly, Vera told her that girls dancing in night clubs made $2,000-$3,000 a month and showed her pictures of some of the dancers in their fine costumes, with flowers and presents from admirers. Anna was beguiled by it all. Anna says that when she arrived in Yerevan in June of 2005, there were 16 other girls in the one house. She started to dance the next day. “Yelena explained that half of the tips went to the club and that she would keep the other half to pay for the travel expenses, rent, food and clothes,” says Anna. “Yelena and Vera never allowed us to go outside alone. If we disobeyed they’d devise punishments like jacking up the debt we owed them. I remember that they punished me for not cleaning the house properly, getting up late and not doing my exercises. We only ate once daily. They argued we’d get fat otherwise. Yelena would beat those girls who drank alcohol and performed their chores poorly. She created an atmosphere of fear. She said she had strong connections in Armenia and Russia and threatened to use them against those girls who disobeyed.” Attorney Tovmasyan also points out that the girls, even before coming to Yerevan, knew that the set-up here would be tightly restricted since the company was responsible for their safety. “There are other points in the contract forbidding the use of alcohol and not seeing customers outside the club. If the rules were broken, penalties would be handed down. In addition, the club itself had its own set of rules and disciplinary measures.” In court, Vera Kalyakinyan said that the debt owed by some of the girls increased because they liked to shop and bought whatever fancied them, regardless of the price. Anna continued her testimony by stating that five months later Yelena told her that her debt had been paid off. “I told her that I wanted to return to Volgograd, that I no longer wished to do such work. Yelena tried to trick me by saying that there were no tickets available. She let me leave only after my mom got on the phone and demanded it. Yelena got the ticket and handed me $100. That’s all I saw for my five months.” A girl escapes then reapplies for another job What’s interesting is that a year later Anna reapplied to Yelena Ltd, this time to find work in Volgograd. Yelena suggested she work as a dancer in Sweden. Vadim got to work on the documents needed. In November, 2006, Vadim told Anna that the paperwork was in order but that there was a problem at the job site in Sweden. Vadim proposed that she go to Yerevan, work for three months, and then leave for Sweden. Surprisingly, Anna left for Yerevan a month later, even though she had already been abused by these people. Anna testified that once in Yerevan, they subjected her to the same restricted regiment and arbitrary discipline as before. She stated that on July 18, 2008, she fled night club. Other girls escaped as well. Judge Gagik Avetisyan asked why the girls would flee if everything was fine and dandy. Judge Avetisyan also asked why was  it that one of the girls went to the Russian embassy in Yerevan and was issued a travel certificate to return home, if, as the mother and daughter claim, the girls’ passports were not taken from them? Vera argues that the girls who fled had fallen in love and left to be with their boyfriends. The judge also questioned why the girls would offer false incriminatory testimony against the mother and daughter; what was the benefit to them? “It’s because I was a professional and earned more than they did. Everyone gangs up on a person who is making good money,” Vera answers, providing the names of a few others who made $2,000-$3,000 a month like her. “If that was the case, why didn’t the girls also testify against them?” asked Judge Avetisyan. “Because I am the one present right now,” answered Vera.