Minister in heroic feat at Arctic lake dies
Russia’s minister for emergencies leapt into an Arctic lake during a training exercise yesterday in an attempt to rescue a prize-winning film director, but both died in the incident.
The deaths occurred during Arctic emergency drills ahead of Russia’s massive quadrennial Zapad military exercises with Belarus, which are due to begin tomorrow.
Yevgeny Zinichev, the emergency management chief in President Vladimir Putin’s government, had previously served as the president’s aide-de-camp and was a trusted member of Putin’s inner circle from his home city, St. Petersburg. Zinichev, 55, also shared a Soviet-era KGB background with Putin from St. Petersburg, then known as Leningrad.
According to reports, film director Alexander Melnik stumbled and fell from a cliff into the Kitabo-Oron waterfall on the Putorana Plateau outside Norilsk. The minister then dived in to save him.
Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of RT television, said on social media that Zinichev struck a rock when he jumped into the water.
She said Zinichev and Melnik were both standing on a ledge close to the edge when Melnik slipped.
“He did not hesitate for a second and acted not as a minister, but as a rescuer, carrying out a heroic feat. He did that all his life,” his deputy, Andrei Gurovich, told Russian television.