ICRF: authorities of Krymsk falsified document on introduction of state of emergency

As declared today by Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), the decision to introduce the state of emergency in connection with heavy rains in Krymsk was falsified: the document about the allegedly made decision was drawn up in the morning on July 7.

Today, at a sitting on liquidation of consequences of the flood in the Krasnodar Territory, which was chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin and held in the city of Gelendzhik, Mr Bastrykin has explained that no decision was made at night on 7 July 7. "By the computer data we established that the decision was made at 6 a.m. on July 7, when most of the casualties were already dead," he said.

The head of the ICRF has also noted that the decision itself contained 32 points; most of them were impracticable, the "Interfax" reports with reference to Mr Bastrykin.

For example, the document prescribed to allocate 32 KAMAZ trucks for evacuating people. "This decision was made at 10:30 p.m. and should have been fulfilled at 10:35 p.m. Thus, most of the actions that we took from the regulations were not implemented in practice; and the administration was all in mess and chaos," the RIA "Novosti" quotes Mr Bastrykin as saying.

Alexander Bastrykin has also stated that the alert and warning system about the state of emergency was actually idling – there are confirmations of almost two thousand people.

The "Echo Moskvy" reports that the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachov said that was not familiar with the findings of the ICRF before this meeting and would decide about his tenure as the governor after the final ICRF's conclusions on the reasons of the Kuban tragedy.

Flood victims complained to Mr Putin about protraction with arrival of compensations and incomplete inclusion of the lost property into the list of items to be compensated, the "Zhivaya Kuban" reports.

Vladimir Kotlyakov, Director of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that on July 11 the cosmonaut Gennady Padalka sent from the International Space Station (ISS) over 200 panoramic photos, clearly showing that the river bed in front of Krymsk was clogged, although it should have been cleared.