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Katkova Shchel: a lost village on the Black Sea coast. The crash site of the President's helicopter "Leicester" was indicated on the map‍

This village is very small and unremarkable. It is located next to the highway, you can get here by car or by bus from the Lazarevskoe microdistrict, there is a sign "Katkova Shchel" on the highway.

In this village there are several private hotels, only one shop and a couple of cafes. That is, it is difficult to call it a resort, rather just a quiet place, a sort of wilderness.

But he has one indisputable merit. Or rather, two. A huge empty beach and clear sea! There are very few such places on the Black Sea coast of Russia.

This is the rare case when the beach is really clean and there are really few people. There are two exits to the beach: the first is under the railway bridge, if you go through the village to the end, and the second is in the green part of the village, just a passage through the railway.

Here in this photo you can see the second passage, people go to the beach. And at the same time the only cafe located on the beach. The prices are reasonable, but the menu does not shine with a variety.
Regarding food, by the way, there is only one dining room in the village, and the choice of dishes there is very scarce.

And here is the railway itself, passing along the beach line.

This is a view of the beach from the water. As you can see, some kind of people are still present, since vacationers come here on weekends to swim in the sea. But I repeat - the number of people even on weekends cannot be compared with what is happening in most resort villages of the Black Sea.

I would like to separately highlight the purity and transparency of the sea in this village. I have something to compare with, and I have never seen such pure water in my life! No turbidity, mud, jellyfish, and the water itself is just turquoise and crystal clear! At depth, your own legs are fully visible. Such a clear sea is a rarity for the Russian coast.

And we lived here in this guest house, an ordinary budget hotel, but quite decent and clean.

Here are the rooms on the second floor of the hotel.

It is located a little on the outskirts of the village, in the shade of greenery, almost even in the forest, and access to the sea is a long descent up the steps. There is another guest house in the neighborhood, shown in this photo, the territory is common, the owners are alone. There is a parking lot, summer tables, a children's pool.

The hotel is located very well, it is quiet and calm, and therefore there are many families with children. We had a balcony in our room overlooking the sea, in my opinion, excellent! On the other hand, the view of the gorge and greenery is also not bad. There is nothing but greenery in the surroundings of the hotel, so any view from the window is quite pleasant.

This is a rear view: the rooftops of both guest houses and a piece of the sea.

And finally, once again about the sea: on one of the days of our vacation, a thunderstorm broke out over the sea, and we got this stunning shot.

In general, there is not much more to say. Here is such a lost resort mini-village, which is not very popular among tourists. Apart from sunbathing on the beach and swimming in the sea, there is nothing else to do here. We rested for only a week, but that was enough for us.

For a relaxing family vacation, I think this place is quite good. A huge deserted beach and the cleanest sea are almost a piece of paradise. This place was created in order to just lie on the beach and swim in the sea. What else do you need for a serene seaside vacation?

Basic moments

The resort village stretches along both banks of the Chukhukt River, which flows into the Black Sea. Closer to the mouth of the river, Magistralnaya Street along the left bank is considered the main one, and above - Kurgannaya Street, which runs along the right bank of the river. In the upper part of the Katkovaya Shchel there are hydrogen sulphide springs and several horticultural associations. There are grocery and hardware stores in the village, but there is not a single nightclub or bar.

Resting in this part Black Sea coast, you can swim and sunbathe to your heart's content. In summer, Katkovaya Shchel is worth enjoying a variety of inexpensive fruits and vegetables. In addition, the locals are always ready to sell to tourists the excellent quality fragrant honey and delicious homemade wine.

Not only amateurs prefer to stay at Katkovaya Shchel beach holiday... The local places are very popular with fans of hiking, horseback riding, jeep riding and rock climbing. On the surrounding mountain slopes there are all conditions for active recreation.

Exits to ancient megaliths-dolmens, beautiful waterfalls, rocky gorges and caves are popular among travelers. And those who are bored with the silence can always leave the Katkovaya Shchel for Lazarevskoye or Sochi, where there are enough entertainment establishments, hangout places and tourist attractions.

History of the village of Katkova Shchel

The resort village got its name from the name of Mikhail Nikiforovich Katkov, whom he bought these lands after the end of the Caucasian War. Until 1864, the ancestral Shapsug aul Tsyukh (Chukh) was located here, named after the ancient Abaza family that lived for many centuries in the Caucasian foothills. When the Caucasian War ended, the people who remained in the village were resettled to the Ottoman Empire. Today, only the name of the river flowing through the village - Chukhukt - reminds of the indigenous peoples of these places.

In 1872, MN Katkov, the editor of the popular magazine “Russkiy Vestnik” and the newspaper “Moskovskie vedomosti”, became the owner of the former aul, and they began building an estate here with his money. By the beginning of the last century, 56 people lived on the site that belonged to Katkov: 43 Georgians, 5 Slavs and 8 Greeks. The first World War and the revolution that followed it led to the fact that the estate fell into decay, and in a period of general disorder it was completely plundered. In 1923, 23 Greek families and 3 Slavic families lived in the village of Katkova.

After the end of World War II, a sanatorium of the Air Force appeared in Katkovaya Shchel. In this regard, the area was closed for outsiders for a long time. It is interesting that the local nature and wonderful climate helped to restore health to many Soviet cosmonauts.

Katkova Shchel became open to tourists only in the early 1990s. Almost immediately, the village began to be actively built up for the needs of vacationers. The development of tourism infrastructure continues today.

Features of the climate in different seasons

The Lazarevsky district of Sochi is famous for its warm subtropical maritime climate. There are up to 200 sunny days here a year, and the swimming season lasts from late May to mid-October. In May, the sea water temperature is +18 ° С. Of course, it is still quite cold for long swims, but it is perfectly acceptable for a refreshing swim. At the end of spring, there are few tourists in the Katkovaya Shchel, and therefore the prices for renting rooms and rooms are kept at the level of the off-season.

At the peak of the tourist season, in July and August, swimmers can enjoy the truly warm sea of ​​+ 25 ° C. At this time of the year it can be hot + 27 ... + 30 ° С, but sea breezes and winds blowing from the mountains in the evenings make your stay in Katkovaya Shchel quite comfortable.

Real connoisseurs rush to the resort village in September, when the Black Sea is still warm, and the bulk of vacationers have already left. Housing prices begin to fall since mid-September, and a lot of ripe fruits are sold in the markets. A great advantage of rest in Katkovaya Shchel in autumn is the absence of sweltering heat, and this is very much appreciated by people with problems of the cardiovascular system and weakened immunity. Even if the sea is stormy, in September you can always go to Lazarev's water parks "Nautilus" and "Starfish" to have a great time in the pools and water attractions.

Tourists come to Katkova Shchel not only in the warm season, but also in winter, and this is not surprising. The mild climate and the air saturated with sea salts are beneficial at any time of the year. In the coldest months, the air temperature in the village does not drop below -10 ° C, and snow falls only 1-2 times per season. The local winter is more like a prolonged autumn, which smoothly turns into spring.

Beach

The beach strip at the mouth of the Chukhukt River is rather wide. It is covered with small pebbles and is cleaned every day during the high tourist season. The beach is separated from the winds by a high rocky shore. A railway line passes nearby, but trains run here infrequently, so the proximity of the railway does not in the least interfere with a comfortable beach holiday.

The main beach of Katkovaya Shchel is public and free. It is never crowded. And pebble strips, removed on both sides of this beach, are often used by lovers of secluded relaxation and nudists. There is no cafe on the village beach, but on the way to Katkovaya Shchel, mini markets are open in summer, where you can buy everything you need.

There are not many people in the resort village, so the sea here is famous for its cleanliness. The entrance to the water is shallow, and the coastal strip is well warmed by the sun - that is why couples with children choose the rest in Katkovaya Shchel.

Excursions from the Skating Gap

Almost all resort villages in the Greater Sochi area are connected by a highway (federal highway M27) ​​and a railway. Such transport opportunities allow you to make exciting excursions to natural and historical sites without special costs.

From Katkovaya Shchel you can take a bus to Lazarevskoye, where there is an ethnographic museum (Pobedy street, 97), and not far from it there are the remains of a Russian fort built by Mikhail Lazarev. A dolphinarium has been opened in Lazarevskoye, as well as the Tropical Amazon Oceanarium, where the inhabitants of the underwater depths, penguins and exotic animals are presented.

An hour's walk from Katkovaya Shchel, in the Soloniki tract, there is a very beautiful waterfall "Miracle-Krasotka". The flowing river is home to rainbow trout, and while walking, you can see many scenic spots and swim in the cool streams under the waterfall.

In the neighboring resort village of Volkonka, there are the remains of a medieval fortress. They are located at the mouth of the small river Godlik (Kurskaya st.). The old fort was used by the Byzantines (V-VIII centuries) and the Genoese (XIV-XV centuries). Archaeologists have repeatedly worked on the ruins of the fortress; they have found many fragments of "Khazar" ceramics.

It is interesting to go to the village of Golovinka, where the famous tulip tree stands 0.5 km from the mouth of the Shakhe River. The mighty tree is striking in its large size, rough bark, bluish, lyre-like leaves and greenish-orange flowers. The giant crown of American liriodendron has a diameter of 30 m. It is believed that the overseas seedling was brought and planted in 1840 by Russian soldiers commanded by N.N. Raevsky. However, botanists are unsure of this and believe that the tulip tree is much older. In the upper part of the Shakhe valley, there is a cascade of picturesque waterfalls, to which excursions are taken from many resort villages of the Black Sea coast.

From Katkovaya Shchel, walks to beautiful mountain gorges - Svirskoe, Berendeevo Tsarstvo and Mamedov Shchel are popular. These are amazingly beautiful natural monuments, where species of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants that are endemic to the Caucasus grow. If you are interested in getting to know the culture of Krasnodar tea growing, you should go on a trip to tea plantations, which are located between Dagomys and Loo, in the village of Uch-Dere.

Fans of active walks can take jeep trips from Katkovaya Shchel to the Prokhladny canyon, Zubova Shchel and the Ashe river valley. In the resort village, a jeep rental is organized for independent trips and with a driver.

Where to stay

Several guest houses, chalets and mini-hotels have been built for tourists in the Katkovaya Shchel. They all offer roughly the same level of amenities - air conditioned and fridge furnished rooms for one to five people. Many private areas have swimming pools and saunas.

Guests can use the shared kitchen and cook on their own, or order meals from the hosts. Almost all guest houses and hotels have a small parking lot and provide transfer services for their guests from Sochi, Lazarevskoye or Tuapse. Since Katkova Shchel is a popular place for family vacations, most guest houses are equipped with playgrounds for kids.

In addition, it is possible to rent rooms and turnkey cottages from private traders. As in other places on the Black Sea coast, housing located closer to the sea is more expensive. The most expensive and demanded rooms and cottages become in July and August. But even at the peak of the tourist season, living in Katkovaya Shchel is cheaper than Lazarevskoye and even more so Sochi.

How to get there

The nearest airport to Katkovaya Shchel is in Adler. From here you can get to the resort village by taxi or regular buses going to Tuapse or Lazarevskoye.

If you get by railroad, you should take a ticket to the station "Lazarevskaya". It and the resort village are separated by about 11 km. Taxis run from the station to Katkova Shchel, as well as regular buses and minibuses heading to Sochi.

Owned by the owner of the English football club Leicester City, Vichai Srivadhanaprabha, the Augusta Westland AW-169 helicopter crashed about an hour after the end of the match of the tenth round of the English Premier League, in which the champions of the country of the 2015/16 season hosted West Ham United (1: 1). The crash occurred immediately after the aircraft took off into the air.

According to the British media, Srivadhanaprabha was on board. Together with him in the helicopter were two more - a passenger and a pilot. All died. Personalities are being established.

However, the club has not yet made official statements regarding the fate of the owner.

“We are helping Leicestershire Police and Emergency Services deal with the aftermath of an incident near the stadium. The club will make a more detailed announcement when additional information becomes available, ”reads a posting on Leicester’s official website. A more specific appeal to the fans in the club is planned to be made on October 28 in the afternoon.

According to eyewitnesses of the tragedy, the helicopter crashed into the parking lot near the King Power arena and caught fire almost immediately after taking off from the stadium lawn.

A few hours after the tragedy, information appeared that the aircraft had a tail rotor failure. The helicopter of the owner of "Leicester" lost control immediately after takeoff. After climbing to a height of about 60 meters, the car collapsed into the parking lot near the stadium.

There is little chance that Srivadhanaprabha survived. The businessman uses a helicopter to leave almost every Leicester City home game. The fall happened a little more than an hour after the end of the duel between the "foxes" and the "hammer men". The final whistle sounded at about 21:20 Moscow time, and the signal to the rescue service arrived at 22:38 Moscow time.

The area near the parking lot was immediately cordoned off, the stadium was evacuated. The players of the teams participating in the match were not injured - the club buses had left the arena by that time. However, eyewitnesses reported seeing the team's Danish goalkeeper crying near the parking lot.

Now the Leicester players are spreading social networks posts with "prayer" emoji. Former players of the team have also joined the support action, for example, the Algerian midfielder Riyad Mahrez, who currently plays for Manchester City.

At the time of the crash, the Leicester City owner's helicopter was only two years old, and its cost was estimated at £ 2 million. The car could accommodate eight people - six passengers and two crew members.

Srivadhanaprabha, 60, is the founder and CEO of King Power Duty Free, a major duty-free chain. Experts estimate the fortune of a businessman from Thailand at $ 3.3 billion. Srivadhanaprabha became the owner of the Foxes during the 2010/11 season, when the club was hanging out in the country's second-strongest division, the Championship. The Thai billionaire spent a little on the purchase - £ 39 million. Since that time, his son Ayyawatt has been the vice-president of the club. According to British media reports, he was not in the helicopter cabin at the time of the tragedy.

Leicester City won the 2015/16 English Championship. This triumph was the first in the club's 130-year history. That success of the "foxes" became a worldwide sensation.

However, the following season, Srivadhanaprabha fired head coach Claudio Ranieri, who had led Leicester to the title.

“Thanks also to those who continue to complain about me and the management. I understand you too. Please respect my decision. I will never let Leicester down. I have been working hard for seven years to make the club better and better. You don't need to talk about money. They all return to the club through investments, ”the businessman explained his decision on Instagram.

Srivadhanaprabha is married. In addition to Ayyawatt, he has three more children.

Other news and materials can be viewed on the page, as well as in the groups of the sports department on social networks

As it became known to Kommersant, the state prosecution requested seven-year prison terms for two officers of the Chechen Interior Ministry - Colonel Said Akhmaev and senior lieutenant Lechi Bolatbaev, who, according to the investigation, extorted 45 million rubles. from a metropolitan merchant. At the same time, the defense claims that all the charges against the police were based only on the testimony of the victim, who initiated the initiation of a criminal extortion case in order to get rid of both his business partner, whom he had been deceiving for many years, and his defenders.


Speaking in the debate in the Zamoskvoretsky District Court, the representative of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office stated that she considered the fact of a particularly large extortion (clause "b" part 3 of Art. 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) from the co-owner of JSC "Network Corporate Agency" Konstantin Zhukov proved, and asked to sentence to real terms conclusions of five defendants in this case. The prosecutor asked Colonel Said Akhmaev and senior lieutenant Lechi Bolatbayev, who are permanently living in Moscow and guarding the highest officials of Chechnya who come to the capital; seven years, and the victim's former business partner Yevgeny Katkov - seven years six months.

According to the investigation, in June 2016, four Caucasians, under the leadership of Mr. Katkov, tried to force Mr. Zhukov to return the money allegedly stolen from his partner for six years of joint business. The invoice was issued, as they say, with interest. The merchant was demanded to pay 45 million rubles. Evgeny Katkov, and his assistants transfer 5 million rubles from this amount. and a Bentley car for the “services” it rendered to resolve the situation. Otherwise, Mr. Zhukov was allegedly promised to initiate a criminal case against him in Chechnya for financing terrorism, "to screw screws into his head" and "to send the severed fingers of children by mail."

The victim filed a complaint with the police and continued contacts with the alleged extortionists already under a hidden audio recording. At the end of the summer of 2016, all five offenders of Konstantin Zhukov were detained by the capital's police and obtained their arrest as part of a criminal extortion case initiated by the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow.

However, already in the Zamoskvoretsky court, which began to consider the criminal case on the merits, it became clear that the evidence collected by the investigation did not allow making unambiguous conclusions about the involvement of the accused in the incriminated crime. For example, it was established that it was not the accused Katkov who first approached the defendants for force support, but the victim Zhukov himself. It was he who attracted Movlad Bulguchev to his side, with whom he worked and was friends for more than ten years. Only when he saw that the authoritative Ingush Bulguchevs had joined the proceedings, Evgeny Katkov decided to “level the playing field” and turned for help to his neighbor on the staircase, Chechen policeman Lechi Bolatbaev and his distant relative Said Akhmaev.

Thus, the members of the alleged criminal group met each other only at a meeting that took place on June 29, 2016 at the Voronezh restaurant. There, after discussing the situation, they came to the joint conclusion that Mr. Zhukov really should compensate Mr. Katkov for his financial losses, and went to the President Hotel on Yakimanka to discuss the terms of debt restructuring.

There, according to the investigation, the mediators went too far with their demands, seriously frightening the debtor. However, the police tape recorder of hidden wearing, which, presumably, recorded threats about the severed fingers and screws in the head, strangely disappeared from the case materials. Mr. Zhukov said that, returning from the meeting, he stepped into a puddle and thus soaked the device. As a result, the flash drive of the recorder was found unsuitable for decoding, and the examination of the remaining audio recordings made by the victims as part of the operational experiment did not reveal any “signs of verbal aggression” on the part of the “fixers”. The surviving audio recordings, according to the participants in the process, do not in any way lead to an organized "hitting", but rather resemble the usual restaurant chatter in a men's company, in which the interlocutors are constantly distracted by everyday topics, abundantly interspersed with swear words.

It turned out to be in doubt, and, presumably, the physical impact on the victim. Mr. Zhukov himself claimed that, confirming the seriousness of his intentions, the recognized martial arts master Bolatbaev, who was recognized in Chechnya, struck him with a painful kick in the kneecap. At the same time, the defenders asked the victim a well-grounded question: why did the operatives of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who remotely controlled the meeting, not record the injury received in the medical facility? Presumably, the blow inflicted on the applicant ultimately remained confirmed in the case only by his words and of unknown origin by the cotton on the audio recording.

Finally, serious discrepancies were revealed in the amount of claims of the alleged ransomware. According to Mr. Zhukov, Said Akhmaev, who discussed with him the financial details of debt repayment, also "threw" the victim, forcing him to write three receipts for 45 million rubles instead of one. each one. The "fixer" allegedly did not like the first receipt due to the absence of the author's passport data on it, and Colonel Akhmaev tore it up with indignation. The second one also went under some pretext to the trash can, and only on the third time did the victim, according to him, manage to satisfy the officer's demands. In fact, the colonel, as stated by Konstantin Zhukov, deftly took out of his pocket and tore into pieces the pieces of paper he had prepared in advance with handwritten text, and left all three receipts for himself, hoping to receive in this way not 45, but 135 million rubles. However, the victim again could not prove his assumption - there was only one receipt in the materials of the criminal case. It is interesting that it was not seized from Said Akhmaev during a search, but was given to the investigation by the victim Zhukov. At the same time, the author's passport data was absent on the receipt.

It is worth noting that 45 million rubles is exactly the amount at which the quarreled partners, in the opinion of the defense, should have agreed when dividing their business. According to one of the witnesses, who spoke at the court session as a business valuation specialist, the partners at the time of the proceedings jointly and equally owned JSC Network Corporate Agency worth 40 million rubles, and the magazine Aeroexpress worth 60 million rubles. and LLC STG Media worth 15 million rubles. Thus, half of the asset price already exceeded the requested amount, and besides, according to Yevgeny Katkov, over the six years of joint business with the victim, he, as an equal owner, planned to receive dividends, which he never saw. According to the defendant, Mr. Zhukov, who held the position of general director in all their projects, sent all the profits to the accounts of companies affiliated with him and thus appropriated.

Note that the inconsistency of the evidence presented to the court apparently made an impression on its participants. In any case, three weeks ago it became known that the terms of detention of the accused had once again expired, but the prosecutor's office did not apply to the court for an extension of the arrests. Thus, it can be assumed that, despite the severity of the punishment demanded by the state prosecutor for the alleged extortionists, they will still be able to avoid real terms.