Putin lashed out at officials for whom such tragedies have become almost routine.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin paid tribute to the memory of the victims of the Bulgaria cruise ship disaster. He arrived in Kazan late on July 14 and immediately went to the riverside wharf from which the ship departed on its last voyage.
The Arabella ship with the survivors of the ill-fated journey also docked there. The Fyodor Shalyapin ship was about to depart. Its passengers gathered on the deck and looked at the bank with alarm. There were no children seen on board the ship. A tall wall of flowers and toys has risen at the wharf in the five days since the tragedy. "We remember you, love you, and mourn you," the relatives of the dead wrote on a poster near the memorial. A self-made poster with the words "Children, forgive us adults" fell off the wall and lay in solitude amidst candles and toys.
Putin laid a big bouquet of red roses to the improvised memorial. He knelt on one knee and put his bouquet in the unoccupied space. He stood silent for a minute and waited for Rustam Minnikhanov, the head of Tatarstan, to perform the same ritual. Then he bowed and left for the conference at the Kazan Kremlin to meet with the ministers and department heads who were responsible for the tragedy.
The members of the government commission on assisting the families of the dead and injured in the Bulgaria ship disaster knew there would be no warm reception. Transport Minister Igor Levitin, deputy head of the Ministry of the Interior's transportation safety department Viktor Kiryanov, and other officials were sitting with bleak faces.
Putin furiously rushed into the hall. Officials reared back in their chairs on seeing the boss.
"I think we have all become used to all kinds of catastophes and disasters in this country. The fact that they have become almost routine for us is bad enough," Putin said instead of a greeting.
However, what happened with Bulgaria has shocked the entire country without exaggeration, Putin said.
"So many dead, so many children have died! It is awful that we have to pay this price for irresponsibility, negligence, greed, and crude violation of safety rules," he went on and cast an angry look at Kiryanov and Alexander Kasyanov, the head of Rostransnadzor (Federal Agency for Transport Supervision). Speaking in a brazen tone of voice, he instructed them to scrutinise all circumstances of the tragedy and all documents for Bulgaria and also charged Kasyanov with checking all relevant legal standards and introducing the strictest punishment for violations of safety rules.
"How could the company work without a license for tourist activities or the use of ships?" Putin yelled with anger. "How were tickets sold in the port? Who allowed this? Who let the ship leave the port? Why did the port sign a contract with the company without a single service license on board?"
The prime minister was raising his voice with every question to which officials had no definite answers, but finally he sighed and continued in a calmer tone. He thanked rescue teams and divers for their work at the site of the tragedy who dealt with arduous conditions. He also thanked the crew of the Arabella ship that saved many passengers from Bulgaria. Putin told officials to find out why the owners of the crews of two vessels passed by without helping the sinking ship.
"Please look at those who passed by. You must give a legal qualification to their conduct. We have a clause on failure to give assistance to persons in mortal danger," Putin said.
He also instructed relevant agencies to transfer money to the families of the dead and injured as soon as possible. Deputy Finance Minister Anton Siluanov reported that 400,000 roubles have already been transferred to those who received medium or heavy injuries and 200,000 to those with lightly injured.
Now it remains to send the money to the families of the dead. The lists of these families are not yet complete, but the money will have been transferred by the middle of next week.
The head of the Tatarstan Government Office Yury Kamaltynov told Izvestia that the lists of the dead are not yet complete because their relatives have not submitted all the required documents. "Social workers are now helping them to select the documents and submit them to the profile ministry," he said. Nine families have already received compensation.
Anastasia Novikova