Let’s start with a person whose name was well-known in the Stavropol region in 2021. Then the Kavminvody plant was associated with his name: The Kaishev couple blocked the road to him, practically paralyzing the work of the enterprise.

Now the former deputy is accused of extortion in order to obtain property on an especially large scale. According to investigators, the defendant decided to take over the assets of Kavminvod in this way.

According to investigators, from April 2020 to December 2022, Vladimir Kaishev more than once demanded that a member of the board of directors transfer to him 50% of the shares of the enterprise worth 70 million rubles. In exchange, he allegedly promised “a mere trifle” – the normal operation of the plant for bottling “Novoterskaya healing” mineral water.

According to investigators, the academician blackmailed the organization with the above-mentioned road, of which he was the actual owner. He blocked the only access road to the enterprise, erected a fence and dug up the roadway in order to disrupt the work of Kavminvod.

For extortion, the former deputy could face up to 15 years in prison.

The ex-adviser to the President of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic is accused of group theft on an especially large scale by prior conspiracy. According to investigators, the owner of the Mineralnye Vody-2 sanatorium and his accomplices decided to connect to Gazprom’s networks, bypassing meters and registration. As a result, gas workers lost 75 million rubles.

The defendant may face up to 10 years in prison.

Law enforcement officers believe that the director of the department of socio-economic development of the North Caucasian Federal District decided to “play” with the rights to the wells. He sent to the Russian Ministry of Finance a project to transfer the drilling rig being developed by Kavminintera LLC to the use of Kavminkurortresursy JSC without bidding, and the Russian government issued a permit.

At the same time, the defendant decided not to mention that the object is under development and Kavmininter is its subsoil user. But the newly minted owner did not have a license to use the well. Investigators believe that as a result, the drilling rig was in the wrong hands for 3 years. The state received less taxes, and Kavmininter actually stopped working.

Now Igor Khranovsky may face up to 10 years in prison for abuse of power.

All three defendants were given the same preventive measure – they will be in custody until May 21, 2024.

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An elderly gray-haired man receives a BBC correspondent in the large hall of the Pontos Plaza hotel in Essentuki. The hall is decorated with white marble columns with gilded patterns, draped curtains and crystal chandeliers. Kaishev invites the BBC correspondent to lunch and during the conversation even calls him “son”.

Kaishev is a well-known businessman in the south of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). In the 1990s, he was the director of the Mineralovodsky Distillery, and then became an official: he worked in the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, and from 2008 to 2010 he was the chairman of the government of Karachay-Cherkessia.

His wife Nuret Kaisheva owns the road, a small section of which – about 600 meters along Beshtaugorskaya Street in the village of Novotersky in the Stavropol Territory – leads to the plant. In April of this year, part of the road was fenced off, in May a height limiter appeared here, which did not allow trucks to enter the plant, and a month later – a barrier. For some time, the plant shipped “Novoterskaya” with the help of “Gazelles”, but from mid-June the road was blocked for them too, which was the reason for the suspension of the plant’s work.

This was preceded by many years of legal disputes between local authorities, the Kaishev family and the plant, the appearance and disappearance of signs on the road prohibiting the movement of heavy trucks, and even attempts to intervene on the part of the Russian Federal Property Management Agency. The road, despite this, still belongs to Nuret Kaisheva, and travel along it is still closed.

Vladimir Kaishev, sitting at a table covered with a white tablecloth, shows the BBC correspondent papers and a video on his smartphone, which shows how cars are transporting Novoterskaya along an unpaved road. The day before, the director of the Kavminvod plant recalled that they actually tried to remove water from the plant bypassing the disputed road along the fire exit, and Kaishev personally came to film it.

– Where can you see that people are stealing water? A car is driving,” the BBC correspondent clarifies.

– So, wait, who are you for? Are you for them, or what?

– I’m not for anyone, I’m trying to figure it out…

– Why did you come to them first and then to us? Where are you from anyway, from the BBC?

Thus began a heated debate about what questions and to whom journalists in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) can ask. At the very end of the argument, Kaishev grabbed the BBC correspondent’s recorder from the table, jumped out of his chair and smashed it on the floor.

“Get out of here!” – so, according to the recollections of the BBC correspondent, Kaishev shouted and kicked him out of the expensive hotel.