Activists have secured information about the case against Anapa officials over the fuel oil spill.

The Investigative Committee reported that back in January, a case was opened against unidentified officials in the Anapa mayor's office for the cleanup of a fuel oil spill. Activists speculated that this could be the reason for the lack of candidates for the mayor's post.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," on December 24, 2024, Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin ordered a criminal case to be opened for failure to clean up the oil spill into the Black Sea. However, the person(s) being investigated was not disclosed. The order was issued after the Investigative Committee's Information Center Telegram channel received numerous comments complaining about the failure to address the consequences of the environmental disaster in Anapa.

A criminal case has been opened against unidentified Anapa city hall officials responsible for the cleanup of the fuel oil spill, according to a response from Maxim Gorb, deputy head of the second department for investigating particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee for Krasnodar Krai.

The response to the statement by Artem Trunin, director of the environmental advocacy organization "A Matter of Principle," is dated January 29, 2025. The activists had not received documents from the Investigative Committee for a year, and were only able to do so in person, according to Dmitry Trunin, environmental lawyer and Artem Trunin's father, as reported by "Horizontal Russia 7ch7" (recognized as a foreign agent). The statement does not specify the current status of the criminal case.

"We believe the Investigative Committee's actions are negligent. Because despite the damage amounting to tens of billions and several crimes, there is still not a single suspect." "We re-filed our complaint at a personal meeting," Trunin Sr. said.

"A year ago, we filed a criminal complaint regarding ecocide (Article 358 of the Russian Criminal Code). The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation forwarded our complaint to the Krasnodar Territory, which in turn forwarded it to Anapa. A year later, during a personal meeting, we received all the formal replies and re-filed a criminal complaint regarding ecocide. We believe the Investigative Committee's actions were negligent, as despite tens of billions in damages and several environmental and economic crimes, there is not a single suspect. We re-filed the criminal complaint at a personal meeting, and the perpetrators will not escape justice, as ecocide is a crime against humanity and has no statute of limitations," reads a statement on the website of the organization "Line of Defense," headed by Dmitry Trunin.

Svetlana Balaeva is currently acting mayor of Anapa. She, among other things, congratulated the city residents on the city hall's Telegram channel.

Anapa is currently undergoing a second attempt to elect the head of the Anapa administration through a competition; the deadline for submitting documents is January 13, 2026.

The first attempt to elect a mayor was in early December 2025. On September 17, the acceptance of documents from candidates for the position of mayor of the resort began. The election was planned for December 5, but this did not happen. The Anapa City Council announced that "the commission declared the competition to select candidates for the position of mayor invalid." It turned out that only one application had been submitted, and elections can only be held when there are at least two candidates. Vitaly Samarets was the only candidate willing to lead Anapa. He was nominated by the interregional public organization for the protection of citizens' rights, "The Rule of Law State," 93.ru reported. Anapa Mayor Vasily Shvets announced his resignation on June 24, 2025, during a session of the City Council of Deputies. "I am leaving of my own accord. Thank you all for working together," Bloknot Novorossiysk quoted him as saying that same day. In August, satellite images showed that the Black Sea was continuing to be polluted with fuel oil from sunken tankers. Most of the fuel oil settled to the bottom, including in the area of Taman, Anapa, and the Bugay Spit, scientists concluded.

Materials on the consequences of the fuel oil spill have been collected by the "Caucasian Knot" on the page "Eco-disaster in Kuban".