The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Putin: Deadly blaze 'criminal negligence'
Exit blocked, fire alarms offff as at least 64 killed in mall.
President Vladimir Put in of Russia visited the Siberian- city of Kemerovo on
Tuesday, calling the shopping mall fifire that killed at least 64 people there the result of “criminal negligence,” while thousands of people pro tested 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, demand
ing an inquiry into the fifi re on Sunday, including into how permits were issued and rescue efforts organized.
“What is going on here?” Putin asked at themeeting in Kemerovo, an industrial city of about half a million 2,000 miles east of Moscow. “It is not awar, not an unexpected methane explosion at a mine. People, children, came to a mall for entertainment.”
“We have lost somany,” he continued. “Why? Because of criminal negligence and mismanagement.”
Russian officials confifirmed Monday that emergency ex its at themall had been blocked
andthat a security guard had switched off the fire alarm system.
Aman Tuleyev, governor of the Kemerovo region, asked Putin for his forgiveness but went onto 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 confifidence 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 offifficial, 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, Tsivi - lev, speaking to protesters through a megaphone, referred to the offifficial 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 alive stream from the protests by the video service Ruptly.