Paradise Birds (Polarlights)

Opening:

2009

Closing:

2016

Country:

Russia

City:

Arkhangelsk

Number of models:

11; boys: 1, girls: 10

Persons involved

Vadim Dvorakovsky
founder, criminal, convicted

Olga Gusarova
founder, criminal, convicted

Yulia Krasnova
convicted

Marina Yushkova
criminal, convicted

Natalya Nivina
criminal, convicted

Olga Martynova
criminal, convicted

Valentina Varakina
criminal, convicted

Ksenia Streblichenko /Casey/
victim, model

Albina Yushkova /Nikole/
victim, model

Vadim P. /Miguel/
victim, model

Polina Martynova /Polly/
victim, model

Martynova /Agatha/
victim, model

Katya Nivina /Katrin/
victim, model

/Erica/
victim, model

/Stacy/
victim, model

/Gellase/
victim, model

Aleksandr Maksimov
investigator

Olga Martynova's profile on one of the social networks

It all started in the summer of 2016.

The "K" Department of the Russian Interior Ministry for the Arkhangelsk Region, which deals with computer crimes, was informed that naked photos of the local Martynov sisters (pseudonyms on pedophile websites Agatha and Polly) were posted for sale on the darknet. The girls were already 9 and 11 years old at the time, and the monstrous photo sessions with vibrators began somewhere around 4 or 5 years old. The operatives initially assumed that their mother, a bank teller, was filming the pornography.

The operatives went to the teller's VKontakte page and were stunned: photos of girls in transparent clothes were posted in the public domain. This is how pedophiles do it: sessions start in clothes, gradually the child model does a striptease, spreads her legs, touches herself, and so on (depending on the sick imagination of the pedophile photographer and his customers). The mother had the initial photos of the sessions, the end of which can only be bought for money. The folder was proudly called "My models".

The police continued to study Olga Martynova's personal page and saw another underage actress (nickname Katrin) in family photos, and established her identity: Katya Nivina, the daughter of the half-sister of the cashier Natalya Nivina.

They studied photos with the same interior, counted the Arkhangelsk schoolchildren (there were 11 of them: 10 girls and one boy), loaded the views from the windows that accidentally got into the frame into a special program and determined the addresses of the filming in Arkhangelsk, right down to the apartment.

There were three apartments. And at different times, a married couple of "photographers" lived in all of them.

Aunt Olya and Uncle Vadim

Olga Gusarova served in the Arkhangelsk pretrial detention center, then worked in a local private security company. Later she worked as a cleaner, an elevator operator, and sold flowers at a kiosk at a cemetery. There she met Vadim Dvorakovsky, who was 15 years younger than her. Dvorakovsky In the 1990s, he worked as a sound engineer at a community center, then his parents sold their apartment in Moscow and moved to a village near Nizhny Novgorod. In 2005, the house burned down, his parents died, and Vadim ended up living without documents with a friend in the Arkhangelsk region.

Oleg Gusarov (Olga Gusarova's son) says:

I immediately found Dvorakovsky suspicious. He said that he used to work for the KGB, and now he hunts pedophiles, and that is why my mother should take out a loan to buy a camera. He would bring girls to our house, post their photos in their underwear online, and thus expose perverts. I was outraged, and so was my mother at first, but then Vadim psychologically manipulated her, and she began to justify him and set up a photo studio at home. There was a scandal, and I wrote a statement that my mother was being drawn into child pornography. The local police officer came, and that same week Dvorakovsky and my mother moved out of the apartment and did not answer my calls for several years. When my mother picked up the phone in 2011, she and Vadim were living in a rented apartment. I went into one of their rooms and saw lighting fixtures. I understood everything and resigned myself to the fact that my mother would be imprisoned...

The studio was originally located at: Arkhangelsk, Kholmogorskaya street, house 39, building 3.

Cohabitants Vadim Dvorakovsky and Olga Gusarova began filming children in their home. The first victim was Ksenia Streblichenko, who was 11 years old at the time of the first shoot in 2009. Ksyusha came to a small photo studio in Arkhangelsk with her mother Yulia Krasnova in 2009. The studio belonged to a friend of their family, Olga Gusarova.

Ksenia says:

My parents trusted her, there was no thought that there could be anything illegal. Olga suggested that they take pictures of me for an advertisement for children's clothing. There was a boom in all these photo studios and the modeling business. My mother asked if I wanted to go there, I was interested. We came, and even the most distrustful person would have believed these people: they fed me, said that they would simply take material, offer the photos to advertising agencies.

At first, they really did take ordinary photos in clothes. My mother liked the pictures, she even hung them on the wall at home. At first, Krasnova went to photo sessions with her daughter. Then there was more work, and Yulia allowed her daughter to go alone.

The most modest photos of the studio "Paradise Birds"

“One day I came to the studio, as usual,” Ksenia recalls. “And they told me that there was another option, on which you can also earn money - a naked photo, but “don’t tell your mom, dad, or grandma.” You're not shy, after all. They said they would give me 30% of the photo sales. I wanted to get this pocket money. I agreed.

The organizers received $400 from each order for child porn, says Ksenia. The girl got 1,000-1,500 Russian rubles. Dvorakovsky filmed and looked for clients. He created two business card websites on the Internet (they are now blocked), where he posted photos and videos of children. Ksyusha appeared under the pseudonym "Casey". Gusarova sewed costumes and looked for new "models". During the shooting, they used different stories "with a certain theme", says Ksenia Streblichenko:

- They asked to put on and then take off tights, smoke a cigarette. The photos and videos were role-playing, with costumes - maids and all that. The clients were only foreigners. I understood that this was not normal. But they explained to me that it was like a game, that it was just work, just a script, they gave me clothes to choose from. And if suddenly the parents asked to see, the owners always had a second flash drive with "photos in clothes" at the ready. Mom also asked, they showed her.

Casey (Kseniya Streblichenko) posing in the studio.

Ksenia was Dvorakovsky's favorite model, there were many orders for her photos. Sometimes sex toys were used in the shoots. As stated in the case materials, Gusarova also took part in the photo shoots: she put on a black robe and "simulated tying up and hitting the naked parts of the models' bodies, inserted various objects into their mouths and anuses."

As a child, Ksenia did not see anything reprehensible in such shoots.

- I was constantly laughing, as if I was not there. Dvorakovsky even asked me to be more serious when he took a close-up of my face. He asked: "Pretend that you like it," she recalls. - They never hurt me, they did not force me to do anything. Dvorakovsky never touched me, but sometimes he straightened my dress.

The teenage girl was proud that she had a real job and her own money. And also communication - Ksenia became friends with the owners of the studio, in fact, she saw them as her second family.

- I had almost no friends at school. My mother was always at work, I was angry with her. And they surrounded me with warmth, greeted me, fed me, I sat in their kitchen for hours. For me, they remained "Aunt Olya and Uncle Vadim," says Streblichenko.

In court, Ksenia admitted that she once had sex with a 15-year-old boy in front of the camera. Then Dvorakovsky sold this video to clients.

Ksenia went to that photo studio from the age of 11 to 16. The realization of what was happening came with age. I realized that this was a crime, that I was a victim. I nurtured the idea of leaving them for six months. And when I got ready, they said: "No, where are you going? You don't want all your relatives and peers to see your naked photos, do you?" I was scared, I didn't do anything. Over time, when more difficult, tough things started happening on the set, I realized that I couldn't do it anymore. I made up some things to do, didn't show up, and realized that they weren't looking for me, weren't calling, weren't writing. I realized that they were just using me. It was an illusion of family, I considered them my close people, because they were very involved in my life. I thought they were doing this because they were really interested, but they were doing it for profit. And they did it with all the children.

They could feed Ksenia lunch, they were interested in her grades, they offered to help with her homework.

Props found by detectives in child porn studio Paradise Birds

During photo shoots, the children not only posed naked. They were given sex toys, asked to interact with each other, to touch themselves and each other. Olga Gusarova, whom the children perceived as their mother, took part in the filming several times - she imitated the blows with a whip. However, the testimony said that the children were not in pain. Natalya Nivina, Katya's mother, told the court that Dvorakovsky and Gusarova asked her permission to insert a wax candle into her daughter's anus, but she forbade them to do so.

Marina Yushkova, mother of Albina Yushkova (model Nicole):

- My Albina loved watching the show "America's Next Top Model" on TV and really wanted to try herself in the modeling business. I was present at all the sessions, because I was afraid that my child would trip over a lighting fixture. But during the photo shoot, I was copying recipes in Gusarova's kitchen: "Tibetan method for acne", "nettles for menopause", - she hands the judge a notebook with recipes.

Dvorakovsky received 10 years in a maximum security prison, and Gusarova received 9 years. In addition to them, 49-year-old mother Natalya Nivina also admitted guilt. Natalya was paid 1,000-3,000 rubles for filming her daughter. She explained that when she came to the filming, she repeatedly met Yulia Krasnova with Ksenia Streblichenko, and sometimes she saw only Ksenia at the party. Nivina was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

The other parents did not admit their guilt. 35-year-old Olga Martynova and her mother, 64-year-old Valentina Varakina, claimed that they did not know what was being done to their two girls, who were 4 and 5 years old at the time the filming began. They participated in photo shoots until 2015, when they turned 10 and 8 years old. Olga Martynova received 12 years and 9 months in a general regime colony, Valentina Varakina - 13 years and 1 month.

Another mother, Marina Yushkova, stated in court that she considered herself a victim. She proved in court that she did not know what her daughter was doing. She was also accused of bringing two other children she knew to the shooting - a 13-year-old nephew (Vadim P.) and an 8-year-old girl (Erica?). Yushkova was sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison. The court examined a video recording in which Yushkova's voice can be heard - she asks her daughter to take off her panties for a photo.

Yulia Krasnova, the mother of Ksenia Streblichenko, was sentenced to 13 years and 3 months in a general regime colony. She claimed that she was sure that her daughter was posing with her clothes on. Krasnova did not force her to do this - she stated in court and then insisted that she was framed. She also explained that she did not need the money, at that time she was an FSB employee.

Almost all the parents in court claimed that they thought their children were starring in commercials. But no one could not explain which companies their daughters advertised, although they confirmed that they received money for it. The press service of the Investigative Committee reported that some parents even bargained for a specific amount.

The case materials indicate that Vadim Dvorakovsky and Olga Gusarova earned about three million rubles from selling child pornography. But there was no wealth. Gusarova explained: they lived in a rented apartment, gave part of the proceeds to models and their parents, did not receive a pension, it was taken by banks for loans, and a month came to only 30 thousand rubles. It turns out that the criminals simply ate up all the income: Dvorakovsky got aquariums with sea fish...

Of all of them, only the grandmother of models Polly and Agatha Valentina Varakina (it was she who took the girls to the shoots, not their mother) made any money: she bought a house on the Sea of Azov with the fees from selling her granddaughters. Each time before the start of the photo shoots, the girls were told that they were earning money for repairs. It turns out that all that's left is this little house, a bunch of disgusting props... and the pictures. These pictures will forever belong to the pedo lobbies. This trail will follow the girls for the rest of their lives.

Watch also: Interview with Kseniya Streblichenko

Ksenia Streblichenko

Paradise Birds (victim, model)

Studied at School No. 26 in Arkhangelsk. Ksenia was filmed in the studio Paradise Birds from January 26, 2009 to August 19, 2013. In total, there were 105 filming days.

Daughter of Yuliya Krasnova.

Albina Yushkova

Paradise Birds (victim, model)

Studied at School No. 28 in Arkhangelsk. Was fond of trampoline jumping.

Daughter of Marina Yushkova. Cousin of Vadim P..

Vadim P.

Paradise Birds (victim, model)

Cousin of Albina Yushkova. Nephew of Marina Yushkova.

Polina Martynova

Paradise Birds (victim, model)

Older sister of Agatha. Half-first cousin of Ekaterina Nivina. Daughter of Olga Martynova. Granddaughter of Valentina Varakina.

Martynova

Paradise Birds (victim, model)

Younger sister of Polina Martynova. Half-first cousin of Ekaterina Nivina. Daughter of Olga Martynova. Granddaughter of Valentina Varakina.

Katya Nivina

Paradise Birds (victim, model)

Katya filmed in the studio Paradise Birds for 38 days from November 11, 2009 to November 6, 2013. Half-first cousin of ? Martynova (Agatha) and Polina Martynova. Daughter of Natalya Nivina.