Court orders brick wall built INSIDE feuding couple’s £2million home – but wife can’t get to the bedroom because the stairs are on his side
Margarita Tsvitnenko described her nightmare after a friend was trapped upstairs by the hastily erected new wall
IT'S divorce Russian style as a court ordered a brick wall to be built through the middle of a £2 million luxury mansion shared by a splitting couple.
But glamorous Margarita Tsvitnenko, 45, was left unable to get to her bedroom on the second floor because the only staircase was on her husband Sergey's side of the house.
She posted on social media about her nightmare after her female friend was trapped upstairs in the home by the hastily erected new wall, and needed emergency services to rescue her.
"One day Sergey said he was leaving me," she said. "We did have problems earlier because of his affairs.
"I put up with them because I loved him and I thought it would be wrong to split and leave our two children without both parents.
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"But then he left me for good and filed for divorce."
The court verdict was to split the family's wealth 50-50 between the spouses, and their main asset was the mansion in Moscow's elite Rublyovka suburb.
"A court expert came to measure the house and figure how we split the rooms," she said.
"The staircase to the second floor where we each had rooms was on my ex-husband's side.
"The court said I should build my own staircase upstairs. I appealed and asked for delay until 7 March 2017 as had no money to build it right immediately."
Margarita, who has a 12-year-old son and an teenage daughter, claimed the builders had ignored a court ruling giving her longer to build a separate staircase.
"Me and my son were having a breakfast when builders came into the house, dragging in blocks of concrete," she complained.
"A court official came too, armed with a statement saying that I should have built my staircase by now.
"I showed him the earlier court's decision that gave me more time."
But he ignored this and the builders blocked doorways and put a wall through the middle of the house which resulted in her having no access to the luxury home's top two floors.
"The court official just looked blank, saying that my former husband was free to do anything he wanted in his half of the house," she said.
"It was like some kind of weird farce.
"Me and my son were downstairs when it was happening, but my friend was asleep in one of the bedrooms upstairs.
"So she got blocked, marooned there. She couldn't get down, it was too dangerous because of the height. I called police.
"Police called emergency services and they brought a long ladder. So my friend who was stuck there for several hours finally managed to get out."
She was told she would need a new court order to regain access to the staircase on her husband's side of the divide, but says - despite the family's previous wealth - she has no money to build new access to the upstairs part of her home.
An accountant, she said she and her 52 year old ex-soldier husband, had built up a lucrative business together before their relations deteriorated.
"I go to court so often it feels like being my second job," she said.
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