MOSCOW — Thousands gathered Tuesday in front of the main municipal building in the Siberian city of Kemerovo to demand answers following Sunday’s tragic fire in a local mall, which killed at least 64 people — 41 of whom are now understood to be children.
The tragedy at Winter Cherry mall has gripped the nation. The fire’s cause has not been determined yet, but local officials say a child may have lit a foam ball in the children’s play area. The fire quickly engulfed the mall’s top floor, trapping children in a nearby movie theater.
Fire alarms did not sound, and fire doors were locked. The committee charged with investigating the crime said the alarms have been out of service since March 19, and a security guard neglected to trip manual alarms once the blaze was reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to the city, located some 2,000 miles east of Moscow, to meet with local officials and calm speculation that many more had died than in the official toll.
Demonstrations for a full probe into the tragedy began Tuesday morning with about a dozen people and has grown throughout the day to a reported 4,000. Many of the demonstrators doubt the official count of 64 dead, alleging the number to be much higher.
“Truth! Truth!” they chanted. “How many dead?”
They are also calling for the resignation of Kemerovo Mayor Ilya Seredyuk and regional Governor Aman Tuleyev. Footage from the scene shows riot police in tactical gear standing between citizens and the administration building.
“Resign! Take them to court!” the crowd continued.
An entire class of schoolchildren apparently died in Sunday’s fire, some having had the chance to make desperate, futile phone calls to parents or relatives before succumbing to smoke and flames. Others posted to social media before falling silent and never logging into their accounts again.
The disastrous blaze joins a long list of accidents, fires and sinkings in Russia marked by apparent negligence beforehand and inept or insufficient response by emergency services. Russian prosecutors can be quick to assign criminal blame in such cases and swiftly went to work in Kemerovo with four arrests, but subsequent promises to step up safety measures often prove to be halfhearted.
[Trapped children called parents from burning Russian mall to say goodbye]
During Putin’s meeting with local officials, Tuleyev apologized to the Russian president for what happened in Kemerovo. He has not, however, faced the crowds outside to issue an apology.
Instead, according to Russian broadcaster RBC, Tuleyev told Putin the demonstration was just 200 of the usual suspects — opposition demonstrators, rather than the families of the dead and their outraged compatriots.
Meanwhile, Deputy Governor Sergey Tsivilev took a different tack and later in the day came out and begged the crowds forgiveness on a bended knee.
Seredyuk, the mayor, also ventured out to invite a group of 15 demonstrators to visit the morgue with him and inspect the bodies themselves. According to the Interfax news agency, one of the group’s members confirmed the official count of 64 bodies.
“We have inspected the morgue,” the demonstrator, who was not named in the report, was quoted as saying. “We have seen the bodies. Judging by their size, there are some 20 adults in the morgue. The others are children. The bodies have not been hidden.”
Putin urged people to wait for the full investigation before assigning blame, assuring them that officials responsible for the tragedy would be punished, regardless of their rank or standing.
“What is happening here? It is not hostilities or an unexpected discharge of methane in a mine. People, children came there to have a good time,” he told ministers in a meeting, according to Interfax. “Why? It is because of criminal negligence and disorderliness.”
Demonstrators had also expressed frustration over the lack of official events mourning the dead. Later in the day, Putin signed an order declaring Wednesday a national day of mourning over the tragedy in Kemerovo, the Kremlin said.
In Moscow, opposition leader Dmitry Gudkov on Facebook called for Muscovites to rally at Pushkin Square at 7 p.m. to lay flowers and mourn the dead. Not to be outdone, the Moscow mayor’s office announced a “spoiler” rally next to the Kremlin at 5 p.m.
Efforts to regain control of the narrative were also forwarded by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that coordinated U.S. and European expulsions of Russian diplomats yesterday showed disrespect for the dead.
“We have learned a lot about the politicians of Europe and America today,” she said. “We have always sympathized with the Americans and the Europeans during their moments of grief … This is hard to believe and to forget.”
In Washington on Monday, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov was more explicit.
“Today, on the day of the Kemerovo tragedy, we have seen that Washington is emotionally deaf, indifferent, and heartless,” he said. “Ordinary Americans sympathized with our grief and send their condolences.”
“Thank you, friends,” he said.
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman was asked by Kommersant newspaper about the decision to expel the diplomats on the same day as the fire, and he explained that there were simply too many countries involved to delay the action.
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