Wife of man suspected of involvement in explosion of building in Astrakhan denies his guilt

Viktor Chlenov could not open gas valves and blow up the nine-storey building in Astrakhan, since he was bedridden. This was stated by his wife Valentina Chlenova. According to her, the blowing up of the building was a fault of workers from the gas service, who two weeks prior to the explosion replaced the gas equipment in their apartment. The woman is going to prove that her husband is innocent.

Let us remind you that on the daylight of February 27, in Astrakhan, nine storeys of the second entrance of the building, located in Nikolai Ostrovsky Street, collapsed. The final death toll was 10 persons. Viktor Chlenov, who, according to one version of investigators, could be involved in the explosion, was among the victims.

The basic version is a domestic gas explosion. This was announced on February 27 by Sergey Bobrov, the head of the Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) in the Astrakhan Region. According to him, the explosion could be caused by a suicide attempt of one of the tenants. Sergey Bobrov did not deny the version of a terror act as a theoretically possible one; however, he has noted that, taking into account the results of the inspection, it is extremely unlikely.

Valentina Chlenova intends to prove innocence of her husband

Wife of Viktor Chlenov claims that last days her husband was not even able to get out of bed because of cancer.

"The version of the suicide is nonsense! My husband was very ill, he had stomach cancer. He was lying all the time, and he could not even open a valve," says Valentina Chlenova, the deceased man's wife.

"Our burner failed, and the valve did not open. Worker from the gas service changed it. Sometime after that, we could smell gas in the stairwell. Probably, they hooked up something wrong, and a gas leakage took place," said Valentina Chlenova. She has added that she intends to prove that her husband was innocent.

Like other persons, who lost their housing in the collapse of the building, the woman has got an apartment and says that she feels bad, the "Lifenews.ru" reports.

Earlier, a source in the law enforcement agencies reported that, according to his information, Viktor Chlenov was registered at the psychoneurological clinic. The man's body was found last at the examination of the rubble, the "Interfax" reports.

Investigators believe apartment of Viktor Chlenov was epicentre of explosion

According to the investigators, it was preliminary revealed that the epicentre of the explosion was the apartment on the third floor, where Viktor Chlenov lived. He led the anti-social way of life and in a state of alcoholic intoxication repeatedly expressed his intention to commit suicide by deliberate explosion of his apartment with domestic gas. This was stated by the release of the Investigatory Department of the ICRF in the Astrakhan Region published on February 28.

On February 28, four suspects in the case were detained: the director of the "Astrakhangazservice", the deputy chief engineer, the senior master of the house networks service of the Open Joint-Stock Company and the director of the management company "Housing Department No. 7". One more suspect, the chief engineer of the "Astrakhangazservice" is in the hospital, the ICRF reports.

According to Anna Konyaeva, Senior Assistant of the Chief of the Investigatory Department of the ICRF for Media Relations, the tenants of the collapsed building said that on the day of the explosion, in one of the apartments stretched ceilings were being mounted, and a gas burner was used at those works.

However, an explosion of such power can occur when almost the entire apartment is filled with gas. That is, in this case, a leakage took place during several hours, and devices failed to register it. In this regard, the investigators have questions to ask the workers of the "Astrakhangazservice".

"It turned out that yet in mid-February, on February 12-14, this building has been examined and no violations in the gas distribution networks were revealed. However, it cannot be true that all equipment was in a perfect condition, and at the same time such a leakage was failed to be registered," the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" quotes Anna Konyaeva as saying.