Family appeals to Kremlin after British schoolgirl is stopped from returning home by her Russian father

Victoria Osborne, 11, has been stopped from flying out of the country by her biological father in a bitter feud with her mother, his ex-wife, over a one-room flat.

Yuri Gladkikh, 40, a colonel in the Russian army's chemical warfare division, obtained a court order to stop his daughter leaving the country after a holiday to stay with her grandmother, even though he has had no role in her life for the last eight years.

The girl, who speaks only minimal Russian, is desperate to be allowed back home to Britain to see her friends and belatedly start secondary school. 

Bitter feud: Schoolgirl Victoria Osborne with her mother Tatiana. The pair are being prevented from leaving Russial

Legal action: Mrs Osbourne's ex-husband, Yuri Gladkikh

'Vicky is completely devastated at what has happened,' said her mother Tatiana, who married British environmental scientist Dr Patrick Osborne in 2003.

'She can't believe her father could do this to her. She was born in Russia but now she is fully British.'

The pair are now stranded in the southern Russian town of Saratov after border guards prevented the girl from leaving.

The family's Russian lawyer is raising the issue with military chiefs at the Kremlin, claiming that Vicky is being used as a pawn in a dispute over the flat involving her parents.

They hope her father will be ordered to let the girl travel back to Britain.

'Whatever the rights and wrongs, there should never be a justification for a father to treat his child in this way,' said Dr Osborne, 52, a senior lecturer at Southampton University.

'He is a colonel in the Russian army who is bringing shame on the military by what he is doing to his own daughter.

'This selfish cowardly action - using a child in this way - is not what you would expect from a Russian army officer. We hope senior army officers will understand this.

'Mother and daughter are dual citizens of Russia and Britain. They travelled to Moscow on their Russian passports which prevents the British embassy from assisting them.

'He is not keeping her here because he wants to see her,' she said. 'It's because of the dispute over the flat.'

The colonel is remarrying and wants Mrs Osborne and her daughter to sign away all rights they have to the apartment they all once shared. 

Mrs Osborne is ready to do this, but wants an assurance that he will then allow Vicky to fly back to Britain.

Happy together: Dr Patrick Osborne with his wife, Tatiana, and Victoria

She said she had already faced threats from her former mother in law.

'She was threatening me, saying stupid things like - "We'll set the FSB (former KGB secret services) on you. We'll make sure they unmask you."'

Mrs Osborne and her daughter confronted the colonel.  'It was like talking to a brick wall. He just wouldn't listen to us.

'Vicky was pleading him to let her go. "Please, I want to go home! Please, I so much miss my friends. I want to go to my new school. Please, I want to see Daddy" - she meant Patrick. "Please can I go!"

'The only thing he said to her, without any apologies, was: "I'm doing this because otherwise your mother won't do what I want.'"

Mrs Osborne said she had refused in the past to hand over her rights to the flat because, as his daughter, Vicky was entitled to a share. She didn't want the colonel to write her out of his life.