It appears co-parenting is not going well for Gleb Savchenko right now!
According to legal documents obtained by TMZ on Wednesday, the Dancing With the Stars pro filed for an emergency child custody order because he alleges his ex-wife, Elena Samodanova, ABDUCTED their 15-year-old daughter, Olivia, and 8-year-old daughter, Zlata, and moved them to China without his permission! Whoa!
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Gleb claims in the docs that Elena relocated to Hong Kong with the kids three years after their 2020 divorce, but the move was temporary. At least, it was supposed to be. The professional ballroom dancer says Elena signed a Post Judgment Agreement in 2023, which allowed her to “temporarily” move their kids to the city for only a year so she could work on a project in the area. The parents allegedly agreed the children would return to the United States by June 30, 2024.
However, that never happened. And Gleb claims Elena will not send them back now. The reality star alleges his ex “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 fiancé,” Vladislav Kvartin.
Gleb feels all of this is an attempt to have Elena and their daughters living in Hong Kong permanently without his permission and to limit his access to the children:
“This has functionally forced me to travel to Hong Kong each year to visit my children, which I have consistently done despite Elena’s efforts taken to drastically limit my access to our daughters.”
Interestingly, Gleb is asking for a judge to grant him “temporary sole legal and sole physical custody” of Olivia, with no visitation rights for Elena, pending further court involvement after a hearing. Ahhh, what about Zlata? He makes no mention of his youngest, but claims Olivia, who is currently with him in the States, does not want to live in Hong Kong with Elena after the mother allegedly made “abusive comments” toward the teen. The television personality believes it is now in her best interest to stay with him and attend school in Los Angeles:
“Olivia does not want to be in the position of having to confront her mother considering Elena’s recent abusive comments to our daughter, including that she is a ‘disgrace’ to the family and other disparaging comments.”
Gleb is concerned that if Olivia returns to Elena, it will “result in an international wrongful retention/abduction of” the teenager. Furthermore, the Strictly Come Dancing alum claims Elena took their kids to Moscow and Vietnam against his wishes. He explained he didn’t want the children going to Russia amid the ongoing war, but the mom did so anyway, traveling by bus for 20 hours to a small village in Moscow, without any cell phones.
How scary…
Elena has since responded to Gleb’s allegations with some of her own! Speaking to TMZ, the mom insists the girls live in Hong Kong now and that her ex-husband is wrongfully keeping Olivia in California by canceling her return flight!
“The statement from Mr. Savchenko’s attorney misrepresents our family’s reality. As Olivia’s primary caregiver, I have raised her every day while Gleb worked full-time on DWTS. Today, Olivia thrives in Hong Kong. She attends a top school and is an elite ballroom dancer. Gleb’s actions directly jeopardize her future, education, and athletic progress. California lacks jurisdiction over our daughter. Hong Kong is Olivia’s permanent home and legal residency. Ironically, Gleb himself holds a Permanent Resident card there. Olivia was scheduled to return to Hong Kong on June 5th, but her father wrongfully canceled her ticket without my permission. This is a wrongful international retention.”
Elena is requesting the courts stop any temporary orders, so she can handle the situation properly:
“His emergency filing is a rushed attempt to bypass proper laws. I am asking the court to halt temporary orders and grant a continuance so my counsel can present Olivia’s permanent records through the correct legal channels.”
The former couple has been ordered by the court to attend mediation on August 5 over child custody. A formal court hearing is scheduled for a couple of weeks later. We’ll see if Gleb and Elena can work things out, but it looks like their custody battle is going to get messy!
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[Image via Elena Samodanova/Gleb Savchenko/Instagram]