The court has found the evidence gathered by the Southern Federal District Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee enough to pass a sentence to former head of municipal entity Krymsk district Vasili Krutko, head of Krymsk urban settlement Vladimir Ulanovsky, former head of Nizhnebakansky rural settlement Irina Ryabchenko, acting head of municipal state-funded institution “Office for emergency management and civil protection of municipal entity Krymsk district” Viktor Zhdanov. Depending on the role of each one they were found guilty of forgery by an official (part 2 of article 292 of the RF Criminal Code) and attempted swindling when receiving the payouts (part 3 of article 30, part 3 of article 159.2 of the RF Criminal Code).
The court and investigators have found that Krutko, Ulanovsky, Ryabchenko and Zhdanov, knowing about a possible natural disaster coming to Krymsk district of the Krasnodar Territory, did not ensured necessary warning and evacuation of the people to safety. The accused did not take any measures to prevent or minimize the possible damage inflicted by the disaster. This resulted in the fact that 153 people were killed, two are missing and 5 local people were seriously injured during a disaster at night of 7 July 2012.
In addition Krutko, Ulanovsky and Ryabchenko gave instructions to their subordinates to prepare official documents containing false information that they had allegedly made everything in time. Namely, the document registered the fact that the emergency situations and fire safety commission, member of which the accused had been, had had a meeting, that they had declared the emergency state and set corresponding tasks, had warned and saved people. The documents were registered post factum on 6 July 2012.
In addition, Zhdanov committed swindling with making documents for lump sum payouts to the people affected by the disaster. Investigators believe that the accused put his address in a list of houses damaged by the floods, which had been made by his subordinates. Zhdanov, however, knew that his house was not only under threat, but wasn’t even in the zone of the flood. Despite this fact, he and four members of his family were out in the list of people affected by the floods and claimed 50 thousand rubles of material assistance. Investigators stopped this fraud in time.
Last year flood in Krymsk was an unprecedented natural disaster, whose driving force was of course nature. But infrastructure blocked water flows and contributed to such an amount of flood water to concentrate. Railways on embankments, bridges and other facilities actually were turned in dikes, which obviously could not hold the disaster and became catalysts for a flood wave. However, lakes and reservoirs on the contrary played a positive part by absorbing part of water, otherwise the consequences could have been much worse. These data were received by investigators based on the results of geographical, hydrometeological, hydro-technical and situational examinations. These unique examinations required the investigators to inspect reservoirs from helicopters, request data from military and civil satellites, involve specialists of different narrow areas, for example, in bridge building.
And if the local infrastructure obviously was not able and should not hold back the disaster, the local officials had all that was necessary to prepare adequately for this challenge. For a start, they had to have forecast the disaster, knowing that Krymsk lies in a low place, and having received the warning from weather staff, - had to have taken measures to evacuate people. It’s hard to imagine what those officials felt at the moment: indifference, panic or just hoped for on the off chance. But it did not matter in any way to more than 150 victims of the disaster and a lot of those who lost everything in one moment. The people were helpless not only before the disaster, but as was found by investigators before the indifference of the officials.
Even after the officials realized the scale of the disaster, which had come into the city with their tacit consent, trying to avoid responsibility they made and signed post factum several documents, which they thought would acquit them. But the experienced investigators quickly revealed the falsification and made them the material for the criminal case of more than 200 volumes. A year later citizens call heroes ordinary people, who came to their rescue and some even gave their lives for that. But hardly anybody will have a kind word to say about these officials, even after this trial. I don’t know which is worse: criminal penalty or being forever despised by the people.
The court sentenced Vasili Krutko to 6 years in prison, Vladimir Ulanovsky – to 3.5 years in prison, Viktor Zhdanov – to 4.5 years in prison. They will serve their terms in a penal settlement. Irina Ryabchenko got a suspended sentence of 3.5 years in prison.
Head of Media Relations V.I. Markin
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