Taking to her Facebook page, the top model has criticised a café who evicted her sister, claiming she was “scaring the clients”.
Natalia’s younger sister, Oksana, has autism and cerebral palsy and was out with her caregiver when the incident took place. The pair had stopped into a café in their hometown of Nizhny Novgorod for a rest and were told by a waitress that they needed to order something.
Oksana’s carer placed an order, but the owner soon came over, allegedly saying: “Come on, go away. You are scaring all our clients away.
“Go and get cured and cure you child first. And only then can you come to the public place.”
The carer, who Natalia refers to as her sister’s nanny, tried to explain the situation to the owner, saying that Oksana had a disability and the best thing to do was just let her sit and rest for a little while. The owner then went to call a security guard.
On her Facebook page, Natalia explains what happened next. “My mother and the nanny have never been thrown out of the cafe before. This is why the shocked nanny phoned my mother and asked what to do in this situation because she knew it was impossible to make Oksana do something.
“While my mother was on her way, the security guard stood next to Oksana and this is what he said: ‘You go away, or we will call the psychiatric service. We will call an ambulance and lock you in the cellar’.”
When Natalia’s mother arrived at the scene, she found her daughter and the carer surrounded by security guards. Again, she tried to explain the situation, saying that Oksana hadn’t touched anyone, was clean and well-dressed and would only “cry or shout” when she felt nervous or upset.
Despite other customers in the café defending the family, the guards demanded they leave immediately; however, according to Natalia, that was not the end of things.
“When my mother came to the central entrance…a police team was waiting there with machine-guns and they roughly ordered her: ‘Stand still. Come with us to the station. We detain you for hooliganism.’
“Oksana refused to go into the car, she was hot and tired. My mother was taken to the local police station on her own.”
Once she reached the station, senior officers recognised she was the famous Natalia’s mother and didn’t take any action against her. She was then taken to the central police station, where she filed a complaint against the café owner.
Natalia is well-known for her philanthropy and has done extraordinary work promoting and fighting for the rights of the disabled community.
“I feel so sorry for my mother and for Oksana, and for our nanny who bravely coped with the situation,” Natalia says on her Facebook page.
“'It was the owner of this cafe who should have been taken to the station for abuse and discrimination. Why was it my mother? Why did she have to waste her day on the way from one police station to another and the man who abused her carried on with his day as usual?'
The café owner has refused to give his name or comment to local papers, however one alleged staff member has said that Oksana was not just sitting when she entered the café. He claims she went into a staff-only area. The café owner’s son has also come out to say Oksana was causing a scene and her mother was very aggressive.
A criminal investigation has been launched into the incident and authorities appear to be siding with the Vodianovas. Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, has said the security guard and cafe owner could face five years in prison.
