On September 24, 2026, 26-year-old Russian woman Amina Bikbova, who was vacationing in Abkhazia with her friend, did not return to the rented house and stopped contacting her family. The girls' relatives raised the alarm and contacted local law enforcement. The police found out that on the day before her disappearance, the tourist could have gotten into an unfamiliar car and driven off in an unknown direction. Soon her body was found in the bushes along a country road. Who the killer turned out to be and why he killed the Russian woman - in the Lenta.ru material.
Amina Bikbova comes from the Orenburg region. She was vacationing in Gagra with a friend - the girls planned to return to their homeland on September 24, but Amina said that she was going to extend her vacation and stay for a few more days. She agreed to rent housing for some more time, and on September 23, she informed her mother about these plans.
According to one version, the reason for this decision was an acquaintance with a fruit seller, 25-year-old Edgar Abukhba, who lives and works in Gagra. He invited Amina for coffee, after which the couple began to correspond. According to the Baza Telegram channel, a friend tried to dissuade her from meeting a foreigner in a foreign country, explaining that it could be dangerous. However, Bikbova went to Abuhba and never returned.
On September 24, the day after her mother called, Bibkova did not come home, although her passport and personal belongings, according to her friend, remained in the room. She only took her phone with her to her meeting with Edgar the day before, but she couldn’t be reached. The girls' relatives raised the alarm and contacted the police.
On September 26, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia announced that a local resident killed a Russian tourist. Almost immediately, Edgar Abukhba confessed to the murder of Bikbova.
He said that on the evening of September 23, they got into a taxi together and went to a rented house in the village of Psakhara. There the couple quarreled, and Edgar, in a fit of anger, strangled Amina. The criminal decided to get rid of the body the next day - he borrowed a car from a friend, loaded the dead Russian woman into it and went to the Bzyb Gorge area. Abukhba wanted to drown the body, but he did not have the strength to do so. As a result, he dumped the body in the bushes near a country road and drove off.
The criminal got rid of the victim's phone and other personal belongings by throwing them in the trash.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs added that the investigative team and forensic experts have collected relevant materials, and the investigation is being conducted by the Gagra District Prosecutor's Office.
As Bikbova’s mother named Gulsina said, Amina and Edgar met when the friends came down from the mountains. The fruit seller invited the Russian women for coffee, but Amina’s friend asked her “not to look for adventure.” Despite the warning, the tourist went to meet a new acquaintance that evening. Before stopping contact, she sent her companion a video message from Edgar's house.
After her daughter disappeared, Gulsina turned to a friend who lives in Abkhazia for help. She went home to Abuhba, but the man said that Amina had already left.
25-year-old Abukhba had previously attacked a Russian tourist. In 2019, at the age of 17, he led a Russian woman he knew to a burned-out complex of government buildings in Sukhum. There he hit his companion on the head several times with his hands and stones, after which he raped her, and also stole the victim’s phone and jewelry.
The victim survived and was able to obtain a sentence for her rapist. Abukhba was sent to a maximum security colony for nine years, but after 4.5 years he was free. According to the Supreme Court of Abkhazia, Edgar’s sentence was commuted, replacing the colony from a strict regime to a general regime, and the term of imprisonment under a general regime is counted one to two.
