Allegedly, at Omsk last week, Plushenko saw Irina hit Lena (although, Irina claims she only grabbed her by the neck of her hoodie), and this was the breaking point for Plushenko, causing him to reveal on social media that Irina calls Lena fat and constantly belittles her, saying that she'll never accomplish anything. After, the competition, he bought Lena a phone for her to communicate freely with the academy staff.
Irina responded to Plushenko's accusations by saying that Lena has grown and gained weight because she's not training hard enough or long enough and the staff feeds her chocolates. She also complained about how this is because she's not allowed to attend her trainings and that Sofia Sarnovskaya has her own personal trainer and trains for longer than Lena.
Things truly came to a head when, on the 24th, Lena asked the academy staff for protection from her mother, as her father, who would usually defend her, was absent at the time. This led to Plushenko reporting Irina to the authorities, and the matter is currently being looked into by lawyers.
It should be noted that this is not the first time Irina has had the authorities called on her. Back in June, Irina had the police called on her when she was at Plushenko's house freaking out, claiming that they were holding Lena inside their house and trying to get her to sign a contract. During this mess, Irina said something rather disturbing, when, in response to being accused of hitting Lena, she said that she had to discipline her, otherwise by the time she's 16, she'd kill her and her father because she has bad genes. Even outside of that incident, Plushenko revealed that Irina is already registered with the guardianship authorities and has been visited by the juvenile affairs commission multiple times for her treatment of Lena.
Multiple staff members at AoP have testified to witnessing Irina physically abuse Lena, and below are some pics and videos that have been shared showing marks from the abuse, as well as cctv of her hitting Lena in the stomach. I have mixed feelings about these being shared publicly, but Yana claims Lena herself has given permission for it.
The latest update is that Irina has been kicked from the house the Kostyleva's have been staying in at the AoP. This was encouraged by Lena and her father, who are both still living there.
Honestly, Lena is insanely strong to have endured this for so long, and still be constantly dominating in competition while dealing with it. Some might claim that her mother is the reason she's so strong mentally, but even if that's the case, it's still incredibly damaging for her mental health. As someone who recently got into tennis and whose fav player is unfortunately Andrey Rublev, I've seen how damaging the long-term impact of this kind of childhood abuse can be, and I don't want that for Lena. I don't know what will happen with this case legally, but hopefully Irina's custody of Lena is restricted and Lena receives therapy.
I suppose she might have to reconsider not competing under any other flag 
it is a shame that her family isn't getting her the help she needs, and her relationship with Lena (not to mention Lena's mental health) will suffer greatly from it. Probably as soon as she's old enough to, she'll run from her mom and never look back
