Documentary exposé leads to 13-year sentence for Moscow teacher in child sexual abuse case

A Moscow court has sentenced Ekaterina Kirsanova, a 45-year-old former vocal instructor, to 13 years in prison for violent sexual acts against a minor under 14. The Moscow division of Russia’s Investigative Committee said in an official Telegram post that the verdict was delivered on December 19, though media reports appeared only a week later. One of the first to disclose the verdict was Baza, a Telegram channel with close ties to law enforcement.

In September 2024, Baza released a documentary film containing accusations against Kirsanova. Much of what is known about her case comes from Baza’s reporting and a handful of Investigative Committee press releases, though some of the details in these accounts conflict.

Baza claimed Kirsanova had spent years grooming young girls at a theater studio. Federal investigators, however, have referred to only one victim. Officials allege that Kirsanova repeatedly invited a 12-year-old girl to her home in August 2019, committed sexual acts with her, and later sent her intimate photographs. The authorities also investigated Kirsanova for possible similar crimes, but they did not disclose their findings. Official records indicate that the case against Kirsanova involved a single child.

Kirsanova’s arrest was first reported on October 3, 2024, shortly after Baza released its film. The documentary featured accounts from former colleagues and students accusing Kirsanova of sexualized violence toward girls aged 12-15.

Former student Sofya Klimova, now 22, said her relationship with Kirsanova began when she was 12. She said the teacher spent six months getting emotionally closer to her. Kirsanova allegedly demanded confessions of love, made inappropriate compliments, and kissed Klimova in a darkened area of Disneyland Paris. At 13, after spending the night at the teacher’s home, Klimova said Kirsanova induced her into sexual intimacy. She added that Kirsanova was at the same time “dating” another girl who was a couple of years older.

Kirsanova told Baza reporters that Klimova was in love with her and had fabricated the account of their relationship.

The film also presents the story of another girl referred to as Lida (a pseudonym). Her parents and a friend discussed her relationship with Kirsanova, which reportedly began when she was 11. At 14, Lida told a friend she had been sexually intimate with the teacher. The film includes a recording of that conversation. Speaking to journalists, Kirsanova described her interactions with Lida as an ordinary student-teacher relationship.

When Lida’s parents learned of her relationship with Kirsanova, they considered reporting it to the police. They decided not to pursue legal action, however, for lack of evidence and because Lida defended her old teacher. At the same time, former colleagues and other ex-students also pushed for criminal charges against Kirsanova and, reportedly, gathered evidence of her relationships with children.

Kirsanova was arrested a week after Baza released its film. Anna Levchenko, leader of the “Report a Pedophile” movement, said the authorities caught the teacher “at the last moment,” claiming Kirsanova planned to flee the country. Levchenko said her group had been working on the case since 2023, including efforts to convince victims to come forward with testimony.

Kirsanova reportedly told the court that her students initiated the relationships, including sexual contact. Baza says it obtained a firsthand account from the teacher in which she admits that her first intimate relationship with a student began in 2017 with a 10-year-old girl identified as “Lena” (name changed), who was enrolled at Kirsanova’s Uley theater studio.

At the time, Lena was extremely shy and struggling with her parents’ divorce. According to the account Kirsanova gave Baza, she sought only to comfort the child, who then developed feelings for her and supposedly asked for intimacy herself. Kirsanova insisted in court that there had been no sexualized violence toward the child. Baza, however, reports that “the opposite was proven,” and that Lena, years later, came to understand she had been a victim of the teacher’s manipulation and, because of her age, did not comprehend what was happening.