Zhulia market: apartment buyer Dolina appealed to the Supreme Court
The buyer of Larisa Dolina's apartment, Polina Lurie— filed a complaint with the Supreme Court. She is trying to challenge the decision of the courts of three instances, which declared the deal illegal, returned the rights to the apartment to Dolina, but did not oblige the People's Artist to return the money. The courts considered that at the time of the conclusion of the purchase agreement, the singer was under the influence of fraudsters. Meanwhile, on December 2, the Chairman of the Supreme Court, Igor Krasnov, called on the courts not to make decisions that could become a catalyst for fraudulent schemes. According to sources, he was referring specifically to the "Valley scheme", which allows former owners to return real estate sold at the behest of scammers, but at the same time leaves bona fide buyers with nothing. About what the decision of the Supreme Court might be, see the Izvestia article.
How Polina Lurie is trying to get her apartment back
Polina Lurie, a resident of Moscow, who bought an apartment from singer Larisa Dolina for 112 million rubles, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court, according to a card on the website of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Earlier, she lost in three instances — the deal was considered null and void, the rights to the apartment were returned to the People's Artist, but the Valley was not obligated to return the money. Polina Lurie's lawyer Svetlana Sviridenko confirmed to Izvestia that the complaint had been filed and registered.
Further, according to her, the case will be requested from the court and, after examination, can be transferred to the civil collegium. The lawyer and Lurie herself expect that the complaint will be accepted for consideration.
The last decision against Polina Lurie was made on November 27 by the Second Court of Cassation. The decisions of all judicial instances were motivated by the fact that at the time of the sale, the singer was misled by fraudsters. As a result, Larisa Dolina lost ownership of the apartment in which she and her family live.
As Izvestia found out, in April 2024, the singer was contacted by men who introduced themselves as employees of the FSB and Rosfinmonitoring. They insisted that her assets were in danger — allegedly her apartment had been mortgaged, so she urgently needed to sell her home, and use the money she received to repay the loan and withdraw the collateral. As a result, a month later, a buyer appeared — it turned out to be Polina Lurie. She bought the property for 112 million rubles.
At the same time, the sale process went smoothly: Lurie inspected the apartment, then signed a preliminary agreement and made a deposit. Already in June 2024, a purchase and sale agreement was signed at a branch of one of the major banks on camera. The transfer of ownership under the contract was registered in the capital's Rosreestr.
However, some time later, Larisa Dolina stated that she had been deceived by scammers and sold the apartment under their influence. The realization of this came to the singer only after the scammers began to convince her to sell her country house. The actress filed a police report.
A criminal case on fraud has been opened, and four intruders have been detained at the moment. Dmitry Leontiev, Angela Tsyrulnikova, Artur Kamenetsky and Andrey Osnovy were in the dock.
Dmitry Leontiev, Andrey Osnovy, courier Angela Tsyrulnikova and Artur Kamenetsky (from left to right) during a hearing on the criminal case of fraud involving the apartment of singer Larisa Dolina in the Balashikha City Court, November 28
Leontiev, as the investigation found out and the court established, was one of the drops — 3 million of the 180 million rubles that the singer gave to the scammers passed through his bank card (in addition to 112 million earned for the apartment, this is also the singer's personal savings). He purchased communications equipment and SIM cards from mobile operators for communication between members of an organized group. Osnovy and Kamenetsky also acted as droppers, and Tsyrulnikova as a courier. On November 28, 2025, the Balashikha Court of the Moscow Region sentenced them to a term of 4 to 7 years in prison.
How Larisa Dolina is being "canceled"
After the criminal case was initiated, Larisa Dolina filed a lawsuit against Polina Lurie in order to regain her apartment. And 10 days later, she filed a lawsuit against the singer. The People's Artist in her lawsuit demanded to challenge the "alienation deal" of the apartment. The justification stated that the sale of the apartment was "influenced by a misconception on the part of third parties."
Polina Lurie, in a counterclaim, demanded that the singer be evicted from her apartment in Khamovniki, trying to prove to the court that she was a bona fide buyer. According to her, before signing the contract, she personally communicated with the singer and negotiated the terms of the deal. All the documents were checked, the money was placed in a safe deposit box, and Larisa Dolina took it from there.
Singer Larisa Dolina
The district court, the court of appeal, and then the cassation sided with the People's Artist. At the same time, Polina Lurie, as the court noted, is not deprived of the opportunity to file claims for damages against those accused of deceiving Larisa Dolina.
The situation angered netizens — they began to react sharply to any public appearances by the singer. For example, Larisa Dolina was invited to a show in honor of the birthday of the Housing Lottery, but after a flood of negative comments, all information about the artist's participation in the show was deleted from the company's resources.
People also launched a flash mob to "cancel" the singer. Users are massively posting videos where, under the song "The Weather in the house", the singer is "denied" services or demanded to return their money for "unsuccessful purchases", allegedly made under the influence of fraudsters.
A trend has become noticeable in the markets for the sale of real estate, cars and rental housing, which has already been dubbed the "Valley effect". Sellers began to apply to the courts en masse to challenge the transactions, claiming that they were acting on the instructions of scammers.
The problem has reached such proportions that it was probably the Chairman of the Supreme Court, Igor Krasnov, who reacted to it. Speaking at the Council of Judges on December 2, he called one of the urgent tasks "improving the quality of judicial decisions, their focus on serving society."
— They should not contain hints, unsupported value judgments, generate ambivalence of interpretation, and even more so be a catalyst for fraudulent and other illegal schemes. Unfortunately, there are such facts," he said.
According to the Izvestia source, it was specifically about court decisions in a large number of cases involving the "Dolina scheme."
How to deal with the "Valley effect"
After the incident with the Dolina apartment, the number of people who honestly bought apartments is growing, but in the end they were left with nothing. Therefore, the selective attitude of the courts to such problems is unacceptable, Nina Ostanina, chairman of the Committee for the Protection of the Family, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood, told Izvestia.
— It's not about Dolina, I don't consider her a victim. It's from people like her that conscientious buyers suffer," the deputy said. — Let's invite 3,000 victims here: large families, young families who lost their homes, who took out mortgages and were left alone with problems. This will be a discussion of the problem.
Nina Ostanina stressed that both the seller and the bona fide buyer should be protected in real estate transactions. Given the current market situation, the Supreme Court must provide security guarantees for both sides. The deputy sent an appeal to the Supreme Court with a request to summarize the practice of considering such cases.
"We are talking about the Supreme Court working out unified recommendations at its plenum, which it would send to the courts of lower instances," the parliamentarian stressed. — It is necessary that we have a uniform application of legislation that would protect the rights of everyone.
The relevant committees of the State Duma should not stand aside from the problems faced by buyers in the secondary housing market, said the chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin at a meeting of parliament, without mentioning the specific case of the singer.
— We must look for solutions with you, having the status and authority, in order to find a way out of the current situation. Let's take a look here so that the relevant committees don't stand aside," he pointed out.
In addition, Larisa Dolina was invited to participate in a round table meeting in the State Duma, where the issue of protecting Russians who buy housing will be discussed in order to give her the opportunity to provide new facts on this topic, Dmitry Svishchev, first deputy chairman of the Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, wrote on his Telegram channel.
"We are bringing together key market players, law enforcement officers and legislators in one room not for discussion, but to develop a specific anti-crisis plan. The goal is to hear all points of view and sore points, so that the new laws are not just strict, but truly working and fair," he said.
The issue of the singer's arrival is being discussed with her director.
"Whether she comes or not is her business. I would like to understand what really happened and hear her opinion. We want to understand how it all happens, why justice sided with her. Maybe it will open our eyes, some facts, maybe we don't know," the deputy added.
What will the Supreme Court say?
The judicial acts in the case of the sale of Larisa Dolina's apartment do not contain a convincing legal justification for declaring the purchase invalid, says lawyer Evgeny Rozenblat, head of the practice of complex litigation.
"As a result, the buyer was left without an apartment and without money," he said. — The argument that the buyer has the right to demand a refund from fraudsters is also questionable.
The lawyer noted that, according to the case file, the money was transferred to the fraudsters not by the buyer, but by the seller. He stressed that this approach looks illogical, since the negative consequences of the seller's actions are actually imposed on the buyer.
— It would be logical for the Supreme Court to put an end to the issues of the correctness of the non-application of bilateral restitution (restoration of the original position of the parties. — Ed.) and the limits of the buyer's responsibility, — the expert pointed out.
If Polina Lurie has facts proving that she is a bona fide buyer, she has a chance in the Supreme Court, says civil lawyer Alla Georgieva.
"What Larisa Dolina did with the money after the sale is none of the buyer's business," she said. "Anything could have happened to them.
However, according to her, if a number of examinations were conducted in the case, for example, psychological, which were taken into account by the courts of lower instances, this may complicate the process. Most often, for the courts, this becomes one of the main evidence in the case.
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