Here, someone sent this over. Kommersant newspaper, 1999. We knew all of this, of course, and the investigation links to these facts, but this piece lays it all out exceptionally well.
The most horrifying part is this: if back then they had done the only thing the law allowed—the thing they were supposed to do—namely, kicked the elder Chaika the hell out of the prosecutor’s office and brought criminal charges against the younger one, then, quite possibly, there would have been no Tsapok gang. And there would have been no monstrous murder, either.
Because that is exactly how it works. “Seryoga, don’t sweat it. One time they picked me up in my dad’s car with Ingush extortionists and a grenade—and it was fine, we got it sorted out, even though the papers made a fuss. So you and Slavka Tsepovyaz just go ahead and impose your own order in Krasnodar and Kushchyovskaya, and we’ll take care of any problems.”
Something very much like that was said to the Tsapoks, and after that they decided they could do absolutely anything they wanted.
And they did:
We must push for an investigation into the Chaikas above all because if they get away with it again, there will be ten more Kushchyovskaya-style atrocities somewhere in Russia.