A court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced members of the “Amazon gang” to terms of 24 to 25 years in prison: Inessa and Victoria Tarverdieva – to 25 years in a penal colony, Anastasia Sinelnik – to 24 years in a penal colony, Sergei Sinelnik – to 25 years in a strict regime colony on charges of 10 murders, informs TASS.
The prosecutor requested Inessa and Victoria Tarverdiev, as well as Anastasia Sinelnik, 25 years in a general regime colony, and Sergei Sinelnik, a life sentence in a special regime colony.
The “Gang of Amazons” operated on the territory of the Stavropol Territory and the Rostov Region from July 2007 to September 2013. The gang got its name after the release of Kommersant’s material, which said that a knife with the inscription “To my beloved Amazon” was found near one of the crime scenes. Later it turned out that the gang members did not use this knife, but the name continued to be used in the media. In 2017 the court acknowledged gang members guilty of at least 10 murders. In particular, they were found guilty of murdering an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Chudakov, his wife and two children on the Don federal highway in July 2009, when they were returning from vacation. During the interrogation, Inessa Tarverdieva said that she killed the policemen out of personal hatred.
In the summer of 2008, bandits shot up the car of a young couple from Rostov-on-Don. The man died, the girl survived, remaining disabled. In September 2013, bandits broke into a private house, killed the owners and stole food. Inessa Tarverdieva was at the head of the gang, and Inessa’s eldest daughter Victoria, her second husband Roman Podkopaev, was also there. In addition to them, the gang included Podkopaev’s sister, Anastasia, and her husband Sergei Sinelnik, who was an active traffic police officer. Read more about the crimes of this and six of the bloodiest Russian gangs of the 21st century in The Insider’s selection.
