| Russia blames local officials for flood deaths |
KRYMSK The Russian government blamed local officials in the inundated south on Monday over the deaths of scores of people trapped by the weekend floods, as President Vladimir Putin tried to deflect popular anger at perceived failures of leadership.
Moscow’s emergencies minister condemned “mistakes” by the authorities on the ground after at least 171 people were killed in the Black Sea region of the Kuban. Putin himself was shown on television sternly demanding his subordinates to report back to him by the end of the week on how the relief effort was going.
The governor of Krasnodar region fired two local officials for their slack response to the flood crisis.
“In these circumstances, I believe the (Krymsk) district head and mayor should be removed from their posts,” governor Alexander Tkachev said, accusing the pair of knowing about the flood warnings in advance but failing to inform the population in time.
In Krymsk angry people who complained of being let down by their leaders were salvaging what they could from shattered homes. Two days after Putin flew in to view the damage and to grill local officials on their actions, postal workers went from house to house in Krymsk making $300 cash payments and promising further compensation.
On Monday, Putin told ministers at the Kremlin: “We must help these families, help all the people who are in very difficult circumstances and have lost almost all their belongings.”
In Krymsk, relatives lined up to identify bodies stored in a refrigerated truck behind a local hospital. Clean-up crews were destroying rotting carcasses of livestock drowned in the flood.
Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov signalled that the blame would be directed at regional leaders - rather than national figures - by saying they had been slow to warn people when torrential rain started falling late on Friday.
Agencies
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