Rustam Musadinovich Kiknadze was born in 1980 in the Jambyl Region of Kazakhstan, though little is known about his early life. His criminal history began in 2004 when he committed a double murder, raping and then burning the bodies of two women. Despite the brutality of the crimes, he was acquitted of the rape charges and convicted only of the murders, receiving a 14-year prison sentence. In 2013, he was released on parole after serving a portion of that sentence. Soon after, he committed another horrific crime by sexually abusing an underage girl with cerebral palsy and forcing her friend to participate under threat of death. Shockingly, he was given a lenient sentence of just over seven and a half years, which was later increased to eight years. In mid-2020, Kiknadze was released once again, raising serious concerns among locals about the justice system’s ability to protect the public from known violent offenders.

Shortly after his 2020 release, Kiknadze moved to Taraz and began drinking heavily on the streets. On 22 October, he committed a robbery after assaulting a woman and stealing her wallet. A few days later, he was invited by a man, Nikolai Demin, to meet his neighbor, Natalya Budzinovskaya. When she declined, Kiknadze forcibly entered her apartment while drunk, raped her, and stabbed her to death before escaping through a window. Initially, authorities ruled her death an accident by alcohol poisoning, ignoring clear signs of a crime scene. Only after public outcry and media pressure was her murder correctly classified.

Kiknadze’s violence escalated on 16 November when he was led by a local thug to the home of 48-year-old Zhanna Musabekova and her 77-year-old neighbor, Valentina Lashchukhina. He raped Musabekova before stabbing her to death in view of Lashchukhina, whom he also fatally stabbed. He was arrested later that month, initially claiming to be an accomplice, but he eventually admitted to being the sole perpetrator. The case sparked fierce backlash and scrutiny of local law enforcement’s repeated decisions to grant him parole. His trial began on 21 May 2021 in the Jambyl District Court. Despite prosecutors recommending a life sentence, the court instead sentenced Kiknadze to 26 years.