From scalpel to harassment: how celebrity surgeon Vardan Khachatryan paid his way out of rape cases and intimidated victims for years

25 апреля 2026 г.

Oleg Krapivin

Three years ago, the prominent plastic surgeon Vardan Khachatryan was accused in a scandal involving the sexual assault of female patients. Yet the alleged perpetrator is not imprisoned; instead, he continues his medical practice and is even seeking damages from the victims for “defamation.”

Why did a case that seemed solid collapse? How have the victims of this doctor, already traumatized, been made victims again—facing lawsuits and threats of slander from Khachatryan, while the criminal case filed in January 2023 has vanished? Why are criminal proceedings now targeting the victims instead of the accused?

Before answering all these questions, let’s return to 2022, when the scandal erupted, and recall a brief history of the case and the essence of the accusations against Dr. Vardan Khachatryan.

History of the issue

It all started when blogger Alana Mamaeva published a series of confessions from Vardan Khachatryan’s patients: a woman comes in for surgery, makes arrangements with the surgeon, and then stays at the clinic for the procedure. But after the operation, she suddenly realizes that something very unpleasant happened during anesthesia or upon awakening from it, while her consciousness is still clouded.

Dozens of women have come forward to claim they were victims of a lecherous surgeon. They all told a similar story: Dr. Vardanyan took advantage of their helpless state under anesthesia, touched them, sexually assaulted them, and in some cases even raped them. The stories were painfully familiar, and the terrifying tales were not so much the details as the ordinariness of Khachatryan’s actions. It seemed as if this had happened many times, over many years, with absolute certainty of impunity.

After the scandal spilled into the public eye and reached alarming proportions, the Russian Investigative Committee was finally forced to announce that it had launched a preliminary investigation under Article 133 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Coercion to commit sexual acts").

It would seem that Dr. Khachatryan’s future was predictable, especially since dozens of victims, including some well-known and public figures, publicly reported rape and sexual harassment. But the result was quite the opposite: three years after the start of the "pre-investigation review," Vardan Khachatryan continues to work quietly as a surgeon. He files lawsuits, threatens the media, aggressively scrubs information from the internet, is not in pretrial detention, is not a defendant in the case, and hasn’t even appeared in court as a suspect. And the criminal case itself has disappeared. How is it that a man publicly accused of sexual crimes by so many women has ended up effectively beyond the reach of the law?

What went wrong?

After initial confusion and natural shock, Vardan Khachatryan took an aggressive stance. Naturally, he declared all the patients’ testimony to be malicious slander and extortion. He himself appealed to law enforcement, demanding that criminal charges be brought against the victims for "extortion".

Khachatryan also constructed a rather coherent defense, accusing his ex-wife of slander, calling her "a drug addict who made it all up." He alleged that blogger Mamayeva colluded with his wife, and that all the patients who reported sexual harassment and violence against him were bribed. The motive was his ex-wife’s personal hatred, blackmail, and an attempt to ruin his career.

However, despite its logic and coherence, this version seemed rather shaky – Khachatryan offered no clear explanation as to why several dozen women were describing similar situations. Moreover, most of the victims provided correspondence, audio recordings, and medical reports – evidence that, in a normal legal system, would at least warrant a full-fledged investigation.

However, nothing happened. That is, nothing happened on the part of the police and the Investigative Committee, which, after announcing the launch of a "preliminary investigation," made no further comment on the case. After the criminal case against Khachatryan was announced in January 2023, no further information was received from official bodies: neither about its progress nor its closure. Furthermore, it is not even known whether a criminal case was actually opened or whether the information was false. In short, complete silence.

This is puzzling, as even the victims of Vardan Khachatryan’s actions remain unaware of the status of the criminal case against him. They have received no official comment, no information on the work done has been published, and neither the results of the examinations nor the status of the defendants have been announced.

Internet data cleanup and three years of silence

Against this backdrop, two other things were happening: the internet was being purged of all mentions of the scandal and Vardan Khachatryan’s reputation was being whitewashed. After a series of publications and confessions, it seemed the case was about to enter the active investigation phase. The internet was awash with interviews, screenshots, and statements, while Khachatryan threatened legal action. The scandal remained a consistent trending topic in the news.

But after about six months, the materials began to disappear. This was primarily due to complaints to Google about "copyright infringement," which is a well-known and effective technique for clearing a reputation. The procedure is expensive, but also simple and straightforward: a website is created online where the material to be scrubbed is posted. It is then posted identically to the original, with the only difference being the publication date.

The fake version is dated earlier. A complaint for "copyright infringement" is then filed, along with the fake original and the supposed copy. The fake original has an earlier publication date, which is enough for Google to remove the reported material from its search results. The fake "original" is then also removed. Thus, the unwanted publication disappears.

Anyone familiar with reputation-cleaning techniques agrees: Vardan Khachatryan actively uses professional companies specializing in removing negative content. It’s expensive, but Khachatryan can afford it. Moreover, these costs are understandable and logical from a business perspective: the scandal must be contained by any means necessary, otherwise he’ll lose his clients.

But it’s unlikely that money alone can explain the disappearance of the criminal case. Far more complex mechanisms were clearly at work here. Money, of course, was involved, but it’s hardly the only explanation for the victims withdrawing their complaints against Vardan Khachatryan and dropping their claims. Why did they change their minds? Pressure? Money? Fear?

Perhaps. However, whatever the motives of those who dropped the charges, it is their right. Just as it is the right of the media to report on it under loud and catchy headlines. However, there is a significant nuance: not all the victims have dropped their claims against Vardan Khachatryan. And if the media ignores this fact, that’s their business. But why is there no response from the police or the Investigative Committee to the statements that have not been retracted? And this is the real mystery. To put it correctly and carefully, the investigation’s silence, which has lasted for years, seems, to say the least, strange.

Where did the criminal case disappear to?

Officially, only one thing is known: a case was opened, and then – nothing. Absolute and utter: no press releases, no interim results, no explanations, no summonses for public questioning. Nothing.

This is typically how a situation plays out when an investigation needs to be frozen and the person involved given time to "resolve" the situation independently. Meanwhile, Khachatryan: survived the scandal; filed complaints against Mamayeva; turned the accusations into a PR stunt; scrubbed the online materials; and is once again operating as if nothing had happened. It feels like the system didn’t just "fail," but deliberately paused.

Unfortunately, there’s only one explanation for this "pause": lots of money, lots of opportunities. Khachatryan’s surgeries cost as much as a mid-size car.
Such budgets allow for the hiring of aggressive legal teams, the removal of negative publications through the courts, the scrubbing of information from the internet with the help of professionals, the exertion of pressure on victims, and the influence of investigations.

The latter is no secret in our country: with sufficient funding and connections, a case can drag on for years, leading to the investigation being closed either due to the expiration of the statute of limitations or "lack of evidence." Furthermore, another obvious fact about the Russian law enforcement system must be acknowledged: without video, evidence, or obvious injuries, cases hang in the air for years and rarely reach trial.

In sexual assault cases, this is especially evident and brutally applied to victims: if an autopsy isn’t conducted within hours of the rape, or if there are no witnesses, the case is hopeless. They even try not to open a case, knowing they won’t be able to prove anything.

In the case of the doctor, if you can call him that, Vardan Khachatryan, all the factors are present: money, a lack of evidence or witnesses, and a cruel system that is indifferent to human suffering. Furthermore, all the victims were anesthetized, and the rapist has a reputable name.

The result is emptiness

The outcome of this entire case is terrifyingly predictable. After the information clearing, it seems to an outside observer as if the scandal never happened. The investigation chose to pretend the problem disappeared. The case isn’t closed, but it’s not progressing. The charges haven’t been dropped, but they’re not being investigated either. The patients claim they were raped, yet the surgeon continues to operate.

It’s a classic Russian story that can be boiled down to one sentence: if you have enough money and connections, you’re innocent until you choose to be. Khachatryan’s story isn’t about one "star doctor." It’s about how easily truth disappears in Russia without a strong protector.