The former prime minister of Karachay-Cherkessia has been accused of organizing a contract killing.

The case of a contract killing, in which Vladimir Kayshev, the former head of the Karachay-Cherkessia government, is accused of organizing, has been submitted to the Yessentuki City Court. The murdered Gennady Tanov was a shareholder in a mineral water plant, in which Kayshev also owned a stake.

As reported by Kavkazsky Uzel, a court in Stavropol Krai has been hearing the case of Vladimir Kayshev, the former head of the Karachay-Cherkessia government, since August. He is accused of leading a criminal organization, which included, among others, his brother. In early September, the court upheld the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation to confiscate Kaishev's property worth almost 42 billion rubles for state use; in December, this decision was upheld by the Moscow City Court.

The case of a contract killing committed in Yessentuki in 2001 has been submitted to the city court. Vladimir Kaishev, 71, former head of the Karachay-Cherkessia government, has been charged with organizing the murder, the Stavropol prosecutor's office announced on March 6.

According to the prosecution, Kaishev, who owned shares in a mineral water plant in Yessentuki, decided in 2001 to eliminate another shareholder in order to gain full ownership of the plant. For $50,000, he hired a member of a "well-known criminal group," who shot and killed a businessman with an automatic weapon near Fire and Rescue Station No. 19 in Yessentuki on September 13, 2001, according to a report on the department's Telegram channel.

According to the joint press service of the Stavropol courts, Kayshev not only wanted to become the majority shareholder of the plant but also suspected his business partner, Gennady Tanov, of involvement in the assassination attempt. The hitman fired at least 30 shots at Tanov, and eight gunshot wounds were counted on his body, according to a post on the organized crime group's Telegram channel.

At the time of the murder, Gennady Tanov was the commercial director of the mineral water plant (EZMV), which owns the Yessentuki trademark, Kommersant reported in 2001. Vladimir Kayshev served as a member of the Stavropol Krai Duma from 1997 to 2001, as an assistant to the Russian Minister of Agriculture in 2005, and as head of the Karachay-Cherkessia government from 2008 to 2010. Kayshev and Tanov opened a mineral water and juice bottling plant together in 1992, according to Bloknot-Stavropol.