The manufacturers of the deadly "Mr. Cider" were sent to a penal colony.

      September 22, 2025, 10:46 — Incidents

      The Krasnoglinsky District Court of Samara has handed down a verdict in the criminal case over the production of the dangerous drink "Mister Cider," which killed 50 people, including four in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. Artem Ayrapetyan and Anar Guseynov were sentenced to eight and nine years' imprisonment, respectively. Both will serve their sentences in a general-regime penal colony, TASS reports.

      The court qualified the defendants' actions under Part 3 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — the production and sale of products not meeting safety requirements, which resulted in the mass death of people through negligence.

      The prosecution had insisted on a harsher punishment — 9 years and 9 months' imprisonment for each. The prosecutor said the defendants' guilt is fully proven: evidence was examined and victims' testimonies were heard during the investigation and court hearings.

      According to the investigation, in 2023 Guseynov, who was the founder and de facto head of the company "Andi," organized cider production in Samara. Together with Ayrapetyan they decided to abandon the traditional method of producing the drink, replacing it by adding alcohol to instant juice powder.

      To cut production costs, Ayrapetyan bought about 4,000 liters of alcohol from Aleksey and Dmitry Egorov and from Ivan Grebenkin. This alcohol had been stolen from an Interior Ministry warehouse and had no documents. It later turned out to be methanol — fatally dangerous to consume.

      The trial began in February 2025. The defendants partially pleaded guilty. They denied acting in prior collusion and claimed they did not know the alcohol was toxic.

      In February 2024 the court handed down sentences for the alcohol sellers: former police officer Ivan Grebenkin received 3.5 years. Dmitry Egorov was sentenced to the same term. His brother Aleksey Egorov received 3 years and 3 months.

      Earlier it was reported that at the end of August five people died in Balakhna after consuming bootleg alcohol.

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