A large family from Tuapse reported problems providing their daughter with baby food.

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Instead of the 78 cans of free baby food she was entitled to, the daughter of a married couple from Tuapse, Sergei Kartashov and Tatyana Pimenova, received only 39. The prosecutor's office, to which the parents appealed, found no violations in the situation and advised them to take legal action.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," a married couple from Tuapse, Sergei Kartashov and Tatyana Pimenova, appealed in court the authorities' decision to force their low-income, large family to move into an apartment that does not meet social norms. Earlier, in 2023, a court in Tuapse ordered authorities to provide the family with housing equal in size to the space they occupied. However, in early March, a court in Krasnodar upheld the resettlement decision. In July, officials filed a lawsuit against the Kartashov and Pimenova family, demanding that they be deprived of their right to priority housing, but the district and regional courts rejected these demands, upholding the family's housing rights. On December 10, it was reported that a criminal case had been opened against the former head of the Tuapse district, Vitaly Mazninov, who in 2021 overturned the ruling declaring Kartashov and Pimenova's house unsafe. In December, Tuapse authorities offered the family a shared-equity agreement for the construction of an apartment building in Krasnodar.

The family of Tatyana Pimenova and Sergey Kartashov from the Tuapse District is raising five children. Their youngest daughter, born in 2025, falls into the category of children in the first six months of life who are guaranteed free specialized nutrition in the Krasnodar Territory for low-income families.

For the first six months of life, all infants born to low-income families in the Krasnodar Territory are entitled to 78 cans of baby food. Each can costs 500 rubles. However, according to Kartashov and Pimenova, their newborn daughter was short 39 cans of baby food. They were forced to go into debt totaling 20,000 rubles to feed her for three months while they sought the right to receive the nutrition they were entitled to.

After the birth of their youngest daughter, the parents contacted social welfare authorities and received an official written response regarding the baby food allocation. A notice from the Tuapse District Social Welfare Department dated February 7, 2025 (a copy is in the possession of the "Caucasian Knot"), signed by E. Matveyev, Acting Head of Social Welfare for the Tuapse District, states: "A decision has been made to provide the public service 'Provision of Specialized Baby Food Products'... The period for providing specialized food products will be extended without an application upon receipt of information by the Social Welfare Department through interdepartmental cooperation."

"In other words, the social agency explicitly informed us that 'no additional applications are required from parents; the extension occurs automatically,'" Tatyana Pimenova commented on the department's response to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on January 19. In practice, according to her, instead of the promised six months of food, they only provided it for three months.

When we contacted the prosecutor's office, they told us we allegedly didn't ask for this food.

"Our youngest child still hasn't received three months of baby food. When we contacted the prosecutor's office, they told us we allegedly didn't ask for this food," Sergey Kartashov told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He showed a response from I. Kliminchenko, head of the enforcement department for minors and youth at the Krasnodar Krai prosecutor's office, dated January 12, 2026, which they received on January 19. "You didn't submit a request to extend the provision of specialized baby food," the response stated.

"We could have ignored these two government agencies, which are giving contradictory explanations: social security says it's a no-application procedure, and the prosecutor's office says it's a declarative procedure. But the consequences of this contradiction fell not on the agencies, but on the infant. And how many people like us are not receiving what we are entitled to by law: housing, food, benefits... Why?" "Because it's simply impossible to achieve anything with this attitude toward people, families, and children," Pimenova noted.

According to her, "considering that one jar of baby food costs around 500 rubles, we're talking about almost 20,000 rubles' worth of assistance not provided to a child during the first months of life."

The prosecutor's office supervisory authority saw no violations and recommended that we take legal action if we disagree.

The prosecutor's office's response, according to the parents, demonstrated how the system of support for low-income families works in practice. "Our infant received only half the baby food required by law, and the prosecutor's office supervisory authority saw no violations and recommended that we take legal action if we disagree. "But we've already learned how the courts work, based on the example of how we received the free, well-appointed housing we're entitled to, which we still don't have," noted Tatyana Pimenova.

The parents also specifically noted how they received at least half of the cans of food. The response from the prosecutor's office specifically mentioned this: "In August 2025, with the assistance of the Tuapse Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office, you were provided with social support in the form of additional specialized nutrition."

"For one of the three months, we were given food for our child at the prosecutor's office building. Not at a store, not at social services... The food was actually given out by a prosecutor's office employee, in all seriousness. We've never seen anything like this before. "It's unclear why baby food is being stored at the prosecutor's office and whether the storage conditions are being met," Pimenova confirmed.

"Officials have their own worldview, and the child is the one who ends up being held accountable," independent lawyer Elena Pavlova commented to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. She believes the lack of assistance for children is systemic.

Social Security officially notifies about the no-notice procedure, but the prosecutor's office then claims that the lack of a notification is the parents' fault.

"Social Security officially notifies about the no-notice procedure, but the prosecutor's office then claims that the lack of a notification is the parents' fault. "As a result, a child from a low-income family receives only half the nutrition they are entitled to," the lawyer concluded. She added that it's particularly alarming that this is an infant: "The child was effectively deprived of nearly 20,000 rubles' worth of nutrition. This isn't a mistake or a trivial matter; it's an indicator of how declarations of support for large families diverge from actual practice."

"We simply want the law to work beyond just paperwork." "So that the child receives everything they are entitled to, and not just half because the agencies can't agree among themselves," added Sergei Kartashov and Tatyana Pimenova, who intend to appeal the prosecutor's office's response.