Today is the anniversary of the murder of 12 persons in Kuschevskaya Krasnodar Territory

Today, it is one year after the massacre in the village of Kuschevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, when the name of the small Russian village became a household word.

The Kuschevskaya massacre received special resonance because of the fact that during the investigation it was revealed that for a long time the region had been controlled by a stable criminal grouping, which, according to local residents, was linked with the local police.

Back on November 12 last year, the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) reported that the case was solved completely; and on August 20 this year they published a list of the accused criminals.

Investigators had accused 12 persons of involvement in the massacre; one more suspect committed suicide in custody.

According to Alexander Tkachov, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, in the near future the case will be sent to the court. It was stated by Tkachov on October 27 in Krasnodar at the sitting of the Collegium of the ICRF, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

Currently, the defendants in the criminal case are Sergey Tsapok, who is considered to be the organizer of the mass murder, his business partner Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz, as well as Andrei Bykov, Vyacheslav Ryabtsev, Sergey Tsepovyaz, Igor Chernykh Nikolai Tsapok, Vladimir Zaporozhets, Alexei Gurov, Evgeniy Gurov, Vyacheslav Skachedub and Vladimir Alexeev.

Besides, the main criminal case is connected with other 11 criminal cases of grave and especially grave crimes committed in the Kuschevskaya District in 2003-2009. These are the cases about the murder of seven and attempted murders of three persons, robbery, intentional destruction of another person's property, fraud, misappropriation of one's vehicle, rape and sexual assault committed against minors.

Immediately after the massacre, inspectors started studying several versions regarding the incident in the village of Kuschevskaya. Last December, the investigation concluded that 12 residents of Kuschevskaya died because of the criminals' mistake in choosing their victims.

On November 17, 2010, Governor Alexander Tkachov announced dismissal of the deputy head of the district administration, where the murder occurred, and the local police boss; while the Russian MIA announced that it would send its commission to the village. On the following day, on November 18, the Russian General Prosecutor's Office also sent its special commission to Kuschevskaya.

On November 24, Alexander Khodych, the head of the division to combat extremism in the Krasnodar Territory, deployed in the village of Kuschevskaya, was detained in the village and accused of abuse of office. After the start of the investigation, residents of Kuschevskaya have repeatedly told journalists about the links of Alexander Khodych, called the "gray cardinal" of the village, with Sergey Tsapok's grouping. Khodych is still under arrest.

On November 24, it also became known about searches conducted at the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Artex-Agro", which had been considered one of the most successful agrarian companies in the Territory and was headed by Sergey Tsapok's mother Nadezhda Tsapok. On August 18 this year the Kuschevskaya District Court found her guilty of a fraud and sentenced her to three years in prison for having illegally obtained a state subsidy amounting to 15 million roubles.

In September this year, two persons were detained in Kuschevskaya within the criminal investigation into the use of slave labour at the LLC "Artex-Agro". A criminal case on the use of slave labour and violence, accompanied by confiscation of documents from the "Artex-Agro" was initiated on December 16, 2010. The reason for this was the statement of the victims - women-citizens of Ukraine Svetlana Borka, 29, and Zita Weiss, 32. As a result of investigatory and search operations, it was established that the figurants of the crime were a woman from Ukraine, 54, and a 51-year-old resident of the Kuschevskaya District, who worked as a mechanic for the LLC "Artex-Agro".

On January 27, 2011, the ICRF announced solving of all the violent crime committed in recent years in Kuschevskaya. According to Vitaly Tkachov, the head of the ICRF's Department for the Krasnodar Territory, all the 12 criminal cases initiated on the past crimes had been solved.

On November 30, 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced dismissal of Sergey Kucheruk, the head of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) of the Krasnodar Territory. The President, although not uttered the name of the village of Kuschevskaya, where the massacre was committed, but explained that the dismissal of Kucheruk was associated with "one criminal episode."

On December 1, 2010, after the check of the General Prosecutor's Office, which began after the public discussion on the massacre in Kuschevskaya, the chief prosecutor of the Kuschevskaya District of the Krasnodar Territory was demoted, and one of his deputies was fired.

On December 2, 2010, Aslan Khuadu and Sergey Solntsev, Deputy Heads of the ICRF's Investigatory Department for the Krasnodar Territory, were declared incomplete service adequacy; and the head of the Department Vitaly Tkachov received "a strict indication on the need for urgent measures to address serious violations of the law and deficiencies in service performance."

On December 20, 2010, on the results of inspections in Kuschevskaya, Alexander Yatsenko, Chairman of the Kuschevskaya District Court, was sacked. The judge was accused of promoting the Tsapok's grouping member Vladimir Alekseev, also known as Vova Bespredel, in employment of his wife Victoria Alexeeva as a court secretary. As a result, Alexeeva was employed at the same judicial precinct, where Judge Danilchenko worked. However, on January 12, 2011, it became known that the Qualifying Collegium of Judges of the Krasnodar Territory put an early stop to the powers of the magistrate judges of the Kuschevskaya District Nikolai Danilchenko and Igor Manilo, after the inspection had established that they refused to accept applications from victims of Sergey Tsapok's grouping. However, in March this year Danilchenko and Manilo were reinstated in their posts of magistrate judges.

In August this year, it became known that Colonel Alexander Bogdanov, the former head of the Centre for Combating Extremism of the GUVD of the Krasnodar Territory, retired. In connection with his dismissal in December 2010, he filed a lawsuit asking to recognize his dismissal order as illegal. In its lawsuit Bogdanov said that the crimes committed in the village of Kuschevskaya had nothing to do with extremist activities. In May, the court upheld Bogdanov's position.