The minister said goodbye to sirens – Society – Kommersant

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In Moscow, they said goodbye to the deceased head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry Yevgeny Zinichev. Thousands of his colleagues and almost the entire leadership of the country, including President Vladimir Putin, came to spend the last journey of the rescuer, who was awarded the title of Hero of Russia posthumously. Wreaths and flowers barely fit into three Emchees KamAZ trucks. At the same time, the most beautiful was not chosen by generals and officials, but by children who are just going to become rescuers.

Exactly at seven in the morning, several hundred cadets of the Emergencies Ministry academies unloaded from departmental and regular buses, minibuses, approached from somewhere to the building of the Crisis Management Center (CMC) of the ministry on Vatutin Street and lined up in front of the facade in long ranks one at a time.

As it turned out, the young rescuers were raised for a reason. After a few minutes later, literally the entire Vatutin Street was filled with minibuses, Gazelles and larger trucks, from which the cadets had to unload wreaths and armfuls of flowers. The cadets took out ritual accessories and put them along the fence, but there were so many wreaths that there was simply no room left at the fence.

For example, the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, PJSC Transneft and the head of VTB, Andrey Kostin, as well as anonymous mine rescuers sent sumptuous compositions of fresh flowers. However, all of them could not compare with the composition “From the Council of Veterans of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergencies in Moscow and students of the College of the Ministry of Emergency Situations “Infoline””. This magnificent panel in the form of a Russian tricolor, made up of hundreds of white, red and blue roses, was pulled out of the truck with difficulty and carried to the place by four cadets.

All the wreaths, however, soon had to be removed from the sidewalk and put into the bodies of specially fitted KamAZ trucks with the symbols of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Before that, the ritual accessories underwent double control. First, they were examined with a metal detector by a security officer of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and then by a dog handler with a dog named Homyak.

«He only looks ugly, – explained to Kommersant the owner of the dog, which looks like an ordinary mongrel, – and “ban” will find faster than any metal detector. “

At about eight o’clock, older rescuers began to join the cadets near the TsUKS building, who were already going to say goodbye to their minister. All of them had to stop in front of two impromptu cordons – anti-terrorist and antique, so a queue soon formed in front of the entrance to the building.

For some reason, the Ministry of Emergency Situations decided to reduce the procedure for saying goodbye to Yevgeny Zinichev to a minimum. The coffin with the general’s body was placed not even in the hall, but in a small room located at the end of the corridor. It was decorated with flowers growing in pots in the front and the same “indoor” trees in the back, thus creating the feeling that the deceased and his close relatives are in a forest glade.

To go to it, in accordance with tradition, to hold on to the edge of the coffin and express condolences to the family, those who saw off did not dare. They only stopped for a moment in front of a barrier of flowers and immediately turned into an adjacent corridor towards the exit.

Of course, these delicate prohibitions did not affect the closest colleagues and friends of the Minister of Emergency Situations. Former FSO comrades-in-arms – commander-in-chief of the National Guard forces Viktor Zolotov, governors of the Tula and Yaroslavl regions Alexey Dyumin and Dmitry Mironov came to see him off on his last journey. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Deputy Prime Ministers Tatyana Golikova and Alexander Novak said goodbye to Yevgeny Zinichev.

The latter called the death of Yevgeny Zinichev a huge tragedy, noting that “he knew him as a very simple, kind and decent person who always responded to various situations and requests.”

“He held a very difficult position, every day, one might say, let someone else’s misfortune pass through himself and was very partial to a person,” the head of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko told reporters. “And he passed away as a real rescuer, as a real hero.”

At the same time, the majority of those who came refrained from making statements. State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said goodbye to the dead in silence. Even Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who is usually open for communication, refrained from contacting journalists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at Vatutin Street last – at about 10:30.

In his telegram, sent earlier to the widow and son of the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Mr. Putin noted that they were associated with Yevgeny Zinichev “for many years of joint work,” and his death was “an irreplaceable personal loss.” Vladimir Putin’s farewell was also very personal. The President laid a bouquet of red roses at the coffin, crossed himself, expressed condolences to the widow and the son of the deceased, and then, returning to the coffin, stood next to him for several minutes, bowing his head low.

Then the funeral cortege, in which the Aurus “Lafet” car specially created for such events was used for the first time, headed to Vnukovo airport. From there, the IL-76 special board delivered the coffin with the body of Mr. Zinichev, his relatives and the wreaths collected during the farewell in the capital to St. Petersburg. The general was buried in the Northern cemetery of the city, next to his parents.

The cemetery management the day before the funeral informed that it is better not to visit it – most likely, the entrance will be closed. The Ministry of Emergency Situations in St. Petersburg also warned that the event would be unavailable to the press. However, having passed a whole exhibition of fire and other rescue equipment in front of the entrance, the Kommersant correspondent found that there were no obstacles.

Moreover, to make it easier to find the place of the still future burial, cadets of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were posted on both sides of the road. The passage for random people ended where the freshly laid asphalt began, that is, about 150 meters before the grave. According to rough estimates, Kommersant has gathered about 100-150 people. The speakers, albeit with a microphone, were barely audible.

«He defended the interests of the department … I acted as a citizen … Will forever remain in our hearts … The Kingdom of Heaven, ”came the voice of Army General Zolotov.

When the coffin was lowered into the ground, fire engines accompanied the rifle volleys with their honks. Rescuers all over the country, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, while saying goodbye to the minister, turned on sirens and flashing beacons. As explained to Kommersant in the Emergencies Ministry, no commands from above were given to the personnel – the action was invented and organized by the employees themselves, giving it an all-Russian scale through their professional associations in social networks.

“It was a human being. Bereavement, no one can believe it. A huge loss, a huge soul and decency was a man. It was easy to work with him, there was a huge responsibility, and the responsibility was not to let him down, ”Aleksey Anikin, head of the St. Petersburg department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, told Kommersant after the ceremony. At the same time, he clarified that he was not closely acquainted with Mr. Zinichev.

Sergey Mashkin; Oleg Dilimbetov, St. Petersburg

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