Putin’s Grim Reality: Public Fury Over Children’s Deaths in Mall
I thought this of interest...Russia is still Russia..corrupt and restless--Many do not like Putin...they struggle to be heard...because Putin runs the media.
At the end of a month that has seen him unveil new “invincible” missiles, announce a space mission to Mars and secure a sky-high vote in Russia’s election, President Vladimir V. Putin faced a grim reality on the ground Tuesday: a nation enraged by the deaths of children trapped in a burning mall in Siberia.
Mr. Putin traveled to the town of Kemerovo to lay flowers next to a memorial for the at least 64 people, many of them children, who died in the fire on Sunday. Some of them died as they banged on locked exit doors and screamed into cellphones for help from their parents.
Public anger at the fire — and claims that official bungling and corruption played a part — drowned out the Kremlin’s fury over Monday’s expulsion of Russian diplomats by 23 countries. Even on state-controlled television, news about the fire pushed aside routine denunciations of the West just as four more countries ordered out diplomats over a nerve-agent attack for which London has blamed Moscow.
That Russia is far from being a monolithic one-party state, despite Mr. Putin’s lopsided re-election, was clear Tuesday evening in the two events organized to mourn the dead in Kemerovo.
One was state-sponsored, near the Kremlin; the other was held in Pushkin Square, by Muscovites who wanted no part in the official gathering. The alternative wake began as a solemn vigil with mourners burning candles and laying flowers, some of them in tears, but gradually turned into a small-scale political rally with chants of “Russia without Putin!” “Corruption kills!” “Shame on television!” and “Silence means death!”
Mr. Putin avoided mention of what many, including those who lost family members, believe was the real cause of the fire: a state system, including multiple agencies responsible for limiting fire and other risks, eaten away by corruption and incompetence.
Russia has strict building codes and elaborate safety regulations but, instead of being enforced, they are frequently skirted with the help of corrupt officials willing to turn a blind eye to violations in return for cash bribes and favors. Law enforcement officers, who are supposed to prevent this, are themselves often on the take or under pressure from powerful political barons not to investigate.
I thought this of interest...Russia is still Russia..corrupt and restless--Many do not like Putin...they struggle to be heard...because Putin runs the media.
At the end of a month that has seen him unveil new “invincible” missiles, announce a space mission to Mars and secure a sky-high vote in Russia’s election, President Vladimir V. Putin faced a grim reality on the ground Tuesday: a nation enraged by the deaths of children trapped in a burning mall in Siberia.
Mr. Putin traveled to the town of Kemerovo to lay flowers next to a memorial for the at least 64 people, many of them children, who died in the fire on Sunday. Some of them died as they banged on locked exit doors and screamed into cellphones for help from their parents.
Public anger at the fire — and claims that official bungling and corruption played a part — drowned out the Kremlin’s fury over Monday’s expulsion of Russian diplomats by 23 countries. Even on state-controlled television, news about the fire pushed aside routine denunciations of the West just as four more countries ordered out diplomats over a nerve-agent attack for which London has blamed Moscow.
That Russia is far from being a monolithic one-party state, despite Mr. Putin’s lopsided re-election, was clear Tuesday evening in the two events organized to mourn the dead in Kemerovo.
One was state-sponsored, near the Kremlin; the other was held in Pushkin Square, by Muscovites who wanted no part in the official gathering. The alternative wake began as a solemn vigil with mourners burning candles and laying flowers, some of them in tears, but gradually turned into a small-scale political rally with chants of “Russia without Putin!” “Corruption kills!” “Shame on television!” and “Silence means death!”
Mr. Putin avoided mention of what many, including those who lost family members, believe was the real cause of the fire: a state system, including multiple agencies responsible for limiting fire and other risks, eaten away by corruption and incompetence.
Russia has strict building codes and elaborate safety regulations but, instead of being enforced, they are frequently skirted with the help of corrupt officials willing to turn a blind eye to violations in return for cash bribes and favors. Law enforcement officers, who are supposed to prevent this, are themselves often on the take or under pressure from powerful political barons not to investigate.
