Russian national Nina Kutina has defended her choice to have lived with her two daughters in a remote cave near Gokarna, Karnataka. Slamming supposed concerns about how dangerous it was, she shared her account first-hand.
The 40-year-old woman came to Indian on a business visa, which expired in 2017, as per the police. Now as proceedings to deport her and her underaged children have commenced, she shared her account in an interview with news agency ANI. Kutina divulged that she and her daughters have had a lot of experience being in nature. “… we were not dying,” she said. “I did not bring my children to die in the jungle…We used to swim in the waterfall…My kids were not dying from hunger.”
Russian national says cave was not dangerous, people are
She further went on to claim that she had lived in the forests of nearly 20 countries owing to her love for nature. Noting how the village was in the cave’s vicinity, Nina Kutina revealed, “The cave was not a dangerous place to stay.”
Kutina’s daughters are six and four years old. Contrary to her claims, local authorities deemed the area unsafe as it is prone to landslides. The presence of venomous snakes poses another threat to safety. Gokarna police Sub Inspector Sridhar S R and his team found the Russian mother and her kids living in the Karnataka cave on Friday.
Sharing a friend and a police officer in a Russian-written text message over WhatsApp, Kutina that as her cave life came to an end she was ” placed in a prison without sky, without grass, without a waterfall, with an icy hard floor on which we now sleep for ‘protection from rain and snakes’.”
#WATCH | Bengaluru | Russian national Nina Kutina, who was found living with her two daughters in a remote cave near Gokarna in Karnataka, says, "We have a lot of experience staying in nature and we were not dying. I did not bring my children to die in the jungle…We used to… pic.twitter.com/iY0Bi8I6xb
— ANI (@ANI) July 14, 2025
She asserted that neither a snake nor any other animal ever harmed her or her daughters despite authorities claiming otherwise. “For many years, the only thing we feared was people,” she added, as reported by the Indian Express. Nina Kutina went on to slam the “baseless fear” at length, saying that one would be just as vulnerable leading a conventional house life.
“If the rain continues long enough, the wall will start to leak. It’s the same as in a cave — only there it is soft, fresh, and cosy. Snakes can crawl into a house — into the toilet, the bathroom, the kitchen, even the toilet bowl. So-called “child protection” is complete nonsense. Totally baseless fears. In their fancy houses, it is the same as in the cave — only worse. Because besides the same issues, there is a pile of negatives instead of positives. And both piles are massive,” she went on.
Further slamming humans for acting “abnormally” and rolling up to the caves in huge numbers, she countered that ten snakes would never be seen attacking a single person. “In nine months, we saw at most four snakes — and that too during their season,” she continued.
Russian woman overstayed her visa
Officer Sridhar, who discovered the Russian woman’s unconventional lifestyle, told IE that Kutina overstayed her visa status following its expiration on April 17, 2017. She is believed to have briefly travelled to Nepal after getting an exit permit in 2018. However, she eventually came back to India and disappeared into Karnataka’s coastal forests.
“She loved meditating and performing pooja for the gods in the forests. Fearing detection if she checked into any hotel, she chose to stay in the forests,” he added.
As per the police’s account, both of Kutina’s daughters were born in India.