Dolina effect is a term for a crisis on the Russian real estate market that began in autumn 2025, when buyers grew wary of sellers. It took its name from the case of Larisa Dolina, a singer who gave away money from the sale of a Moscow apartment after falling for a scam. The case drew wide media attention and led to a broader distrust of elderly sellers and of the courts' treatment of defrauded parties in property deals.
Dolina's case
Dolina sold a large apartment in central Moscow to a buyer named Polina Lurie for a negotiated price paid in cash. Dolina later said that scammers posing as state security officials had pressured her into the sale and into handing over her savings. When she realised she had been defrauded, she sued to recover the apartment. The trial court granted the recovery but did not order the money returned, and two appeals upheld that ruling before the Supreme Court of Russia reversed it.
Effect on the market
Russian media coined the term "Dolina scheme" to describe fraud in which criminals abuse the Civil Code to dispossess honest buyers. Because such schemes often involve pensioners, trust in elderly sellers fell sharply, and buyers began requesting extra witnesses, background checks and changes to sale deeds. Dolina herself suffered serious damage to her reputation through her association with the case.