New raids by Kadyrov's men. Results of the week

Shooting at a school in Kuban, raids by Kadyrov’s men in Chechnya, a major fire in Grozny, detention for a conflict with an ex-husband and persecution of an environmentalist - about this and not only in the next episode of the podcast Kavkaz.Realii about the main events of the week in the south of Russia and the North Caucasus.

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School shooting in Kuban

In the Krasnodar Territory, in the city of Gulkevichi, a ninth-grader opened fire with a pneumatic weapon at school. Two students were injured. Local authorities announced an investigation into the school management and security organization to determine how a high school student was able to carry a weapon with him in the first place, and a commission from the regional Ministry of Education was sent to the municipality.

The Baza Telegram channel published a video from the scene of the incident. According to them, the teenager tried to escape, and the reason for the shooting could have been a failed test exam in the Russian language.

Doctors assess the condition of the victims as satisfactory, said the governor of the region, Veniamin Kondratyev. He also noted that the regional Ministry of Health sent psychologists to the school to assist students and parents.

Raids and fire in Chechnya

The Chechen opposition movement NIYSO announced new abductions of residents of the republic by Kadyrov’s men. According to their information, the next raids began in the Achkhoy-Martan district on May 10 - security forces, according to NIYSO, “arrange ambushes for young people, accusing them of drug use.” Then, according to activists, the detainee’s family is blackmailed, demanding a ransom under the threat of being sent to war against Ukraine.

The security forces have previously disguised forced recruitment for the war in Chechnya as a fight against crime: detainees, under the threat of a fabricated criminal case, are offered to sign a contract and go to the front. Relatives of oppositionists, men who refused to admit guilt on trumped-up charges, as well as the security forces themselves, who have “offended” something before the leadership of the republic, come under attack.

In October 2024, Ramzan Kadyrov called for young residents of the republic who lead, quote, an “idle and immoral” lifestyle to be sent to the combat zone. Reports of forced transfers to the front have been coming from Chechnya since the first months of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Human rights defenders and opposition activists have repeatedly spoken about kidnappings, pressure on their families and problems with obtaining foreign passports for those trying to leave the region.

Here is what human rights activist from the “Go through the Forest” project Ivan Chuvilyaev says about arrests and fabricated drug cases:

“This is the simplest story possible - on the one hand, the cops simply receive “sticks” for allegedly solving cases. On the other hand, we must keep in mind that this practice is much more complex and multi-stage than it might seem. The main thing is that it all comes down to the fact that they all sign contracts in pre-trial detention centers. It has happened in our practice that people who followed the “people's” Article 228 signed contracts not only in pre-trial detention centers, but also in colonies, but that was a long time ago. It all comes down to this practice of signing a contract in a pre-trial detention center, that is, signing a contract with a person whose guilt has not even been proven; the investigation is still underway."

Another news from Chechnya. In Grozny there was a strong fire in a multi-storey residential building. Authorities say there are no casualties and call the preliminary cause of the fire "careless handling of electricity." Critics of the Kadyrov regime do not agree with this: citing local residents, they announced a “large number of dead,” and before the fire, according to activists, there was a “powerful explosion.”

The Chechen movement NIYSO was the first to report the fire on the evening of May 11 – it published footage of a burning high-rise building on its Telegram channel. According to Kadyrov's critics, residents of neighboring houses and hospital workers spoke about the victims, and the authorities are trying to hide this information - including demanding that posts about the victims on social networks be deleted.

The mayor of Grozny, Kadyrov’s nephew, Khas-Magomed Kadyrov, stated that “all residents were evacuated in a timely manner.” According to Kavkaz.Realii sources in Chechnya, there are no casualties, but “many people with [carbon monoxide] poisoning were taken to hospitals.”

Detention for conflict with ex-husband

In Chechnya, after the arrest for 30 days, there is no information about the legal status of Belkisa Mintsaeva. She said that her ex-husband took her children. What is happening to her now is unknown. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic does not comment on the situation.

Mintsaeva is registered in Novosibirsk. Previously, she recorded an appeal to the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, in which she said that two years ago her ex-husband kidnapped her daughters while they were visiting their grandmother in Chechnya. As a result of the proceedings, the court left the youngest daughter with her father, and the eldest with her mother.

On April 6, Mintsaeva arrived in the republic to visit her child. She said that she missed her sister and mother. Mintsaeva took her, and together they flew to Novosibirsk. After this, her ex-husband reported the kidnapping to the police. According to human rights activists of the “Caucasus Without a Mother” project, Belkisa was blackmailed with his brother’s life, holding him in the police department and threatening to send him to war. So Mintsaeva was forced to return to the republic. In mid-April she was detained, and since then contact with her has been lost.

The founder of the “Caucasus without a Mother” project, Lydia Mikhalchenko, comments on this matter for our podcast:

“According to our information, the case is very closed, literally mega-closed. I haven’t seen anything like this for a long time, not that there is no information on the lawyer’s direct questions, but there is also no information when local security forces, various sources among security forces who are not directly connected with the case, try to find out something, and they receive answers like “Why are you interested in this?”, “How are you connected with this?”, “What is your interest?” They immediately turn to the personality of the questioner. We, to be honest, did not expect such a development at all. events. That Belkisa herself will go to Chechnya and that she will also be imprisoned there. We expected that there would be a showdown in the spirit of the Kadyrov authorities, but that they would be imprisoned for such a long time... We have never seen this in our project.”

Harassment of environmentalist for comments

The Russian government has prohibited Rospotrebnadzor from providing information on the content of harmful substances in Anapa, where the largest oil spill occurred after tanker accidents in December 2024. This spring, a new oil slick was discovered off the coast of the city. Following this, the sea was polluted as a result of Ukrainian attacks in neighboring Tuapse.

This decision became known from the response of Rospotrebnadzor to municipal deputy Oleg Yantsen - it was published by Kuban ecologist Evgeniy Vitishko. The document states that the department continues to take samples of water and sand on the beaches of Anapa and sends the results to a special government commission. However, senior officials prohibited sharing this data with representatives of other departments, as well as with journalists and bloggers.

Another news regarding Kuban. In relation to the environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak, who commented on the consequences of the oil spill for independent media, a protocol was drawn up regarding his connection with an “undesirable” organization. It is unknown what exactly he is charged with.

Slivyak is co-chairman of the Ecodefense movement. He spoke about environmental pollution in the Krasnodar region after a series of Ukrainian attacks on the oil refinery in Tuapse - in particular, he spoke with journalists from Present Time and Meduza. Back in the spring of 2025, the Russian Ministry of Justice added the ecologist to the register of “foreign agents” - this happened shortly after the Kavkaz.Realii website published a text with his words about pollution off the coast of Anapa.

Probation for Deputy Governor of Kuban

In Krasnodar, a court sentenced former deputy governor of Kuban Anna Minkova to five and a half years of suspended imprisonment in a case of fraud and money laundering. The official was awaiting her verdict under house arrest; before that, property worth more than 330 million rubles was confiscated from her.

According to the official version, in 2022, Minkova, supervising the region’s healthcare sector, supported the candidacy of the sister of a Krasnodar developer for the post of director of the state regional medical college. After the appointment, the deputy governor asked him to sell her an apartment in the city center for five and a half million rubles instead of twelve million of its market value. According to investigators, the former deputy governor had no intention of paying for the property.

Along with the suspended sentence, Minkova was given a probationary period of five years, a fine of 700 thousand rubles, and she was also prohibited from holding positions in the public service for three years.

Another story about official corruption comes from Karachay-Cherkessia. A court in Cherkessk confiscated assets worth almost 65 million rubles from the former republican minister of property and land relations Dmitry Bugaev. He himself was arrested on charges of abuse of power.

Previously, the investigation reported that during his work, the former official acquired real estate and vehicles worth a total of more than 310 million rubles - he registered them in the name of relatives.

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