Kuzovenko Sergey Nikolaevich

In early July 2022, security forces conducted searches at the homes of three local residents in Armavir, Krasnodar Krai - 66-year-old Marina Zakharova, 64-year-old Nikolai Nabiev, and 61-year-old Sergei Kuzovenko. 12 security forces with automatic weapons and masks burst into Zakharova's precinct when she was weeding her garden at her home in Armavir. They were accused of creating an illegal armed formation and possessing weapons. According to the investigation, in 2019, four residents of Armavir created the territorial and tribal community 'Rusy Kubani', of which Zakharova was elected head. In order to achieve their goals, they decided to create a "people's squad." "In the opinion of the pensioners, the police do not protect citizens, so they decided to take on this responsibility themselves, for which they decided to acquire and store weapons at their place, using it for self-defense. Security forces were embedded in their "druzhina", who recorded the meetings, which later became the reason for initiating a criminal case. The embedded security forces persuaded one of the pensioners to sell the faulty pistol he had, and then falsified a criminal case. FSB officers infiltrated two colleagues among the pensioners, and for almost two years they could not obtain evidence of their guilt, after which they began to provoke them into committing crimes. One of the pensioners, in a conversation, told the undercover law enforcement officer that in the 1990s he had bought an old, malfunctioning pistol at a "flea market" and showed it to him. Law enforcement officers began persuading the pensioner to sell this pistol and exchange it for a more modern one, citing the fact that it is now "a difficult time" and everyone needs self-defense. The pensioner agreed, and further falsifications began, recordings allegedly about the "arming of the group. Security forces who had infiltrated offered Zakharova to block the roof of her house in order to gain her trust. After they repaired the roof, Zakharova laid a table for them in gratitude. At the table, security forces began to have conversations on provocative topics about corruption and the fact that officials should be held accountable for it. They managed to get Zakharova to say in a joking manner that "we probably need to arm ourselves." The court sent the pensioners to the SIZO. n June 2025, the Uspensky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory transferred the case to the Southern Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, adding the motive of "committing a crime for the purpose of terrorist activity" to the qualification of the charges.