In Baksan, Kabarda–Balkaria, a court has found a section supervisor from the municipal water utility guilty of causing a mass poisoning which affected a total of 253 people.
The supervisor was identified by local outlet Gazeta Yuga as Yura Taov. He received a sentence of eight months of parole, preventing him from leaving the municipality, changing his place of residence or work without approval, and requiring him to report for registration every month.
The criminal prosecution followed an outbreak of acute intestinal infection recorded in Baksan in 2024. Those affected suffered dysentery and rotavirus infections.
‘This is a bacterial infection and a viral one. A mixed infection. Given that both presumed sources are transmitted not only through water, but also through household contact, with food, through contact within a family, this chain will still persist for some time. But I think we have already passed the main peak’, the head of the regional Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor), Zhiroslan Pagov, said the day after the first medical consultations.
According to the court verdict, between July and September 2024, Taov ‘failed to properly carry out his duties’. Despite a direct order from Rospotrebnadzor and instructions from management, he allegedly did not maintain the required level of hyperchlorination in the municipality’s drinking water. As a result, dangerous bacteria entered the water supply network.
According to the court's decision, 113 residents of Baksan were recognised as victims — among them ‘many minors’. All of the affected individuals sustained minor harm to their health.
At the same time, according to Kabarda–Balkaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khubiev, 253 people sought medical help, including 197 children. Of these, 84 people were hospitalised, among them 70 children. Due to the outbreak, classes were suspended in two schools, two kindergartens, and one college.
Taov fully admitted guilt and requested that the case be considered under a simplified procedure.
‘This did not require a full trial, provided that the evidence collected was confirmed. The state prosecution and the representatives of the victims did not object’, the court said.
Taov was found guilty of violating sanitary and epidemiological rules resulting, through negligence, in the mass illness or poisoning of people, charges which provide for a fine of up to ₽500,000 ($6,500) or up to two years of imprisonment.
Elizaveta Chukharova
