Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Vishnevsky Surgical Research Institute yesterday, where nine of the victims of the fire at the Lame Horse club in Perm are being treated. The Prime Minister, accompanied by Healthcare and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova, as well as several chief doctors of Moscow hospitals, held a video conference on the treatment of the victims.
Interestingly enough, rumours were rampant on the internet yesterday that Vladimir Putin was on his way to the scene of the tragedy in Perm. Yet, the Prime Minister's motorcade was actually headed straight for Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya Street in Moscow, where the Vishnevsky Research Institute is located.
A screen was set up in a small room on the sixth floor, and Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and the governors of St Petersburg, the Perm Territory and the Chelyabinsk Region all took turns appearing on it.
"All the necessary measures are being taken to investigate the circumstances of the tragedy: the Emergencies Ministry is inspecting all the concert halls, clubs and similar recreation facilities," Putin said in his opening remarks. "But the main thing right now is to save all those who've received burns and injuries."
As Putin noted, "The victims are in for prolonged and difficult treatment," and "they'll need special medication, equipment, food and care."
"We have all the medicines to save and treat the patients," the Prime Minister said. "If necessary, the Healthcare Ministry can purchase anything that we need, regardless of the cost. This is a situation in which nobody thinks twice about the cost."
Putin also called on governors to provide all necessary assistance to the relatives of the victims who followed their injured loved ones to Moscow, St Petersburg and Chelyabinsk, and asked the head doctors if they needed additional help.
One after another, the chiefs of Moscow's leading hospitals reported on the number of victims they were treating and said they didn't need any extra help.
"The holidays are right around the corner and we're aware that many of our citizens will not be in a holiday mood: there have been many serious accidents recently," Putin said, recalling the crash of the Neva Express train. "Doctors are working round the clock. This is a moment when you should really demonstrate maximum commitment: absolutely everything must be done to save as many people as possible."
After the conference, Putin took a look at the intensive care unit. Following instructions and refraining from actually entering the wards, he spent five minutes looking around before leaving the Institute. Izvestia asked the Prime Minister's press secretary Dmitry Peskov why the conference was held at the hospital, as opposed to the specially equipped situation centres at the Government House. Peskov explained that Putin wanted "to see for himself what conditions the victims are being treated in."
Alexander Latyshev
