Russians protest after deadly mall blaze
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin of Russia visited the Siberian city of Kemerovo on Tuesday, calling the shopping mall fire that killed at least 64 people there the result of “criminal negligence,” while thousands of people protested nearby to demand transparency and accountability.
“I want to say that the entire country is mourning together with you, with Kemerovo residents,” Putin said at a meeting with local officials before calling for a moment of silence, according to a transcript on the Kremlin’s website.
But the president soon shifted his focus to the circumstances of Russia’s deadliest blaze in a decade, demanding an inquiry into the fire on Sunday, including into how permits were issued and rescue efforts organized.
“What is going on here?” Putin asked at the meeting in Kemerovo, an industrial city of about half a million 3,200 kilometres east of Moscow. “It is not a war, not an unexpected methane explosion at a mine. People, children, came to a mall for entertainment.”
“We have lost so many,” he continued. “Why? Because of criminal negligence and mismanagement.”
Russian officials confirmed Monday that emergency exits at the mall had been blocked and that a security guard had switched off the fire alarm system.
Aman Tuleyev, governor of the Kemerovo region, asked Putin for his forgiveness but went on to accuse opposition forces of exploiting the tragedy to sow discord. “It’s sacrilege when there’s grief and you use it to solve your own problems,” he said.
Thousands of demonstrators rallied Tuesday in a central square of Kemerovo, steps from the regional government offices where the meeting was held, calling for Tuleyev’s resignation and a transparent investigation. Neither Tuleyev nor Putin visited the site of the demonstration, although the president held an unscheduled meeting with city residents who expressed low confidence in the investigation, the news agency Interfax reported.
Local officials who addressed the protesters faced a climate of anger and distrust. The news website Znak reported that one official, Sergey Tsivilev, the region’s deputy governor, met with cries of “The truth!” and “Resign!”
Demonstrators also demanded that Putin come to face the crowd, and sought explanations about nondisclosure agreements that relatives of victims and doctors treating the injured are said to have been instructed to sign, according to witnesses quoted in news reports.
At one point, Tsivilev, speaking to protesters through a megaphone, referred to the official death toll of 64 recorded in the fire. “Why are you lying?” one man shouted. Another climbed onto the platform from which Tsivilev was speaking to confront him, according to a livestream from the protests by the video service Ruptly.
Tsivilev suggested that the man, who identified himself as Igor Vostrikov, was using the tragedy to attract attention.
“I have lost my sister Sabadash Alyona Igorevna; my wife, Vostrikova Elena Sergeevna; three children, 5, 7 and 2 years old,” the man replied. “I came here for self-promotion, did I?”
Vostrikov is emerging as a kind of leader of the incensed protesters in the grieving city. Taking to social media, he voiced a growing sentiment about a lack of accountability for the tragedy.
“I no longer have a family. The ruling regime is guilty,” Vostrikov wrote. “They will find a scapegoat and this will be a done issue. But the threats — incompetence, widespread corruption, alcoholism and total degradation of society — will go nowhere.”
Although the death toll has risen to 64, it could go higher. The Investigative Committee, Russia’s equivalent of the FBI, said it had received reports of 67 missing people. Of the 59 bodies delivered to morgues, 21 have been identified.