Every time, it’s the same thing.
A tragedy happens. The authorities are stunned and in shock. They cannot protect people. They cannot answer their questions. They are not even capable of behaving like human beings.
It hunches its shoulders and waits.
Two days pass, they look around: the danger has passed. Then, puffing themselves up with pride, they shout loudly: WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO USE THIS TRAGEDY AND PEOPLE’S GRIEF FOR PR. WE WILL NOT ALLOW VARIOUS FORCES TO ROCK THE BOAT.
Every time, it’s the same script. Word for word.
Just watch Tuleyev’s video address. He literally starts talking about “certain forces” around the 40-second mark.
He says it outright: Dear residents of Kuzbass (the Kemerovo region in Siberia), you already know everything about the tragedy, but around it there are “certain forces” — and then he just keeps reading from the official talking points.
No, damn it, we do not know everything about the tragedy. Not even close.
Look at federal TV: that damn Ukrainian prank caller is being discussed more than the people responsible for the fire in which 40 children burned to death. The prank caller is a real piece of work, no argument there. He spreads lies and rumors. So what.
Tell the truth in response to those lies. But no, the Kremlin is delighted with this prank caller — he is their best friend, their lifeline. Now they can open some bizarre criminal case and talk about it on a hundred talk shows in a row.
We are not discussing Tuleyev, not the Emergencies Ministry generals, not the firefighters’ lack of equipment — but the Ukrainian prank caller. And, for good measure, the supposed heartlessness of foreign diplomats who expelled our diplomats on a day of mourning.
Endlessly, it’s the same refrain: “let’s wait for the results of the investigation and not rush to conclusions.”
I personally have already reached my conclusions. The people in the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall were killed by corruption, and to me that is as clear as day.
Do you know how many people work in Russia’s fire safety system?
Go here and prepare to be amazed:
220,000 people. Two hundred and twenty thousand. That is an entire army. A huge army.
There are heroes in this army, people who save lives at risk to their own, but overall this army exists for one purpose only: to extort bribes.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian entrepreneurs, hundreds of thousands of property owners and tenants, pay this army billions of dollars in bribes every year.
We all know this. Read this excellent detailed article on how it all works. Bribe-taking is the only function this valiant Emergencies Ministry unit performs successfully. Its work in fire prevention and firefighting is a complete failure. And there is ironclad evidence of that.
Let’s look at the fire death statistics.
Only African countries perform worse than Russia:
7 deaths per 100,000 people.
Compare that with countries where fire protection is organized most effectively:
Now look at the data from the international association of fire services. It confirms that Russia’s fire situation is simply catastrophic. We are the worst. Far worse than anyone else.
10,000 people die in fires every year. That means 37 people will burn to death today.
One fact is beyond dispute: the Emergencies Ministry has completely failed at fire prevention, firefighting, and rescue operations during fires.
Enormous sums of money. Many years. Zero results. A perfect extortion system and nothing more.
I have already written about the head of the Kemerovo Emergencies Ministry driving a Land Cruiser. Here is another fact uncovered by the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) almost immediately after an initial review of this unit’s procurement records: we found 8 purchases of clothing and gear worth 19 million rubles.
Two Moscow companies — LLC “Bioamin” and LLC “Neftegazkhimkomplekt.” It is plainly obvious that they split these tenders between themselves. Both companies have the same phone numbers and are registered at the same address: 2/1 1st Lyuberetsky Passage, Moscow.
Was anyone fighting corruption in the Kemerovo Emergencies Ministry? Of course not. All the region’s siloviki (security and law enforcement agencies) were busy only with us — there have been 9 raids on campaign headquarters in Kemerovo and Novokuznetsk recently.
They do not want to fight corruption. The fight is against those who fight corruption.
The leadership of the Emergencies Ministry should be removed for failures that are confirmed by every objective set of data and by the statistics.
The activities of Tuleyev, his family, and his deputies must be investigated. All of them should end up in the dock.
The positive agenda is also obvious: study and implement best practices in Russia. If there are plenty of large countries where fire mortality is 14 times lower than ours, then there is no need to reinvent anything. We should use what they have been doing for a long time already.
Bring in oversight by insurance companies. Raise the value placed on human life and the compensation paid out. Separate pre-incident inspections from post-incident investigations (right now the same people handle both). This has all been said many times already. Maxim Mironov has collected everything in one post here — read it.
It is very clear what needs to be done. It is very clear who is responsible for this systemic failure.
There is just one problem: one man at the very top who does not want to do anything.