It is indisputable that heavy rainfall can produce major flooding. It can also be extremely difficult to preempt a natural disaster or its consequences, as authorities from across the globe will testify.  However in the instance of the flash floods which claimed the lives of 171 people in the Krasnodar region on Friday and Saturday, there is some dispute as to what actually occurred to induce such levels of destruction.  The fact that victims of the disaster have made some serious accusations against the authorities (to the point of suggesting they might have caused them by opening sluice gates) reveals the fact that in Russia, distrust of the authorities runs deep.  From AFP:

After torrential rains dropped up to 300 milliliters (12 inches) of water late Friday and early Saturday, the flooding inundated Krymsk so quickly that that residents said they suspected that water had been intentionally released from a reservoir in the mountains above the city to prevent the dam from being breached.