The sentence in the case of the death of tourists in Sochi has been upheld.

The appellate court did not satisfy the appeal against the sentence of the organizers of the excursion trip to Sochi, during which an adult and a child died, and six others were injured.

The judicial panel of the Krasnodar Regional Court did not satisfy the appeal against the sentence of the Lazarevsky District Court of Sochi for Sergey Krbashyan and Arkadiy Kesheshyan, who were found guilty under part 3 of article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation 1 . Krbashyan was also found guilty under part 5 of article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation 2 , the Unified Press Service of the Krasnodar Territory courts reported today on its Telegram channel.

According to the court, in August 2025, the defendants organized paid excursion trips for tourists in a technically faulty "UAZ" vehicle but did not conduct a safety briefing for the passengers.

"During the excursion trip along the Solokhual — Dagomys highway in the Lazarevsky district of Sochi, driver Sergey Krbashyan, exceeding the safe speed limit, lost control of the vehicle and collided with a road barrier. As a result of the traffic accident, two passengers died, including a minor, and six others sustained injuries of varying severity," the prosecution's position is stated in the message.

Krbashyan was sentenced to 3.5 years in a settlement colony, while Arkadiy Kesheshyan, referred to in the publication as the "organizer of unsafe excursion services," was sentenced to three years in a general regime colony.

The judicial panel found no grounds for mitigating the imposed sentence.

Kesheshyan appealed the sentence; however, the judicial panel found no grounds for mitigating the imposed sentence. The sentence has been left unchanged and has entered into legal force," the publication notes.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that in May 2021, during a rafting trip on the Mzymta River in the village of Esto-Sadok, a raft hit rocks and overturned, and tourists ended up in the water. One tourist died, and two others were injured. The suspect in the case became an entrepreneur who had signed contracts for conducting rafting with tourists and participated in the rafting as an instructor.

According to the investigation, the 38-year-old entrepreneur did not assess the level of training of the tourists, did not conduct a briefing, and also did not check the safety of the route.

Earlier that same year, a court in Tuapse sentenced the captain of the boat to three years in a settlement colony, and the owner of the vessel received a suspended sentence in the case of the death of two tourists during the boat's crash in the Black Sea.