Relatives of those who died in “Zimney Vishne” demand 42 million from the Ministry of Emergency Situations

Relatives of those killed in the Kemerovo shopping center “Zimnyaya Vishnya” filed a civil lawsuit for 42 million rubles to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, as well as to the former head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kuzbass, Alexander Mamontov, and the former chief state inspector for fire supervision of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in Kemerovo, Hryhoriy Terentyev. This is reported by TASS from the Central District Court of Kemerovo, where the case about the fire at “Zimney Vishne” is being heard.

As the judge Inna Mykhaylenko specified, two victims filed lawsuits for one million rubles for compensation of moral damage, five citizens demand five million rubles each, another lawsuit was filed for the sum of 15 million rubles. The court decided to join the civil action to the case.

Alexander Mamontov and Hryhoriy Terentyev are charged with three counts of embezzlement, negligence and fraud. According to the investigation, they knew about violations of fire safety in “Zimney Vyshne”, but “did not take measures to conduct an inspection.” In particular, due to the negligence of the former regional head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the state inspector, according to the investigators, the fire extinguishing system turned out to be broken, and the emergency exits are closed.

The fire in “Zimney Vishne” occurred on March 25, 2018 due to a short circuit in the electrical wiring in the entertainment center. The fire spread across the four-story building quickly, as the premises were decorated with flammable building materials. The fire extinguishing system was faulty, the evacuation exits were blocked. As a result, 60 people, including 37 children, could not get out of the shopping center and died. Another 147 people were injured. As part of the investigation, 16 people were arrested, including building managers, firefighters and now former heads of the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations, officials responsible for putting the shopping center into operation.

• In October 2022, the Central Court of Kemerovo sentenced Vyacheslav Vishnevsky, the co-owner of the burned down shopping center “Zimnyaya Vishnya” to eight years in a strict regime colony. Ego was found guilty of paying a large bribe to a person. Vishnevsky was also fined 21 million rubles. He confessed to giving a bribe in the amount of seven million rubles to Tanzile Komkova, the former director of the regional department of the State Construction Supervision Agency. According to the investigation, this allowed the entrepreneur to reconstruct the “Zimney Vyshny” building, where the confectionery factory was located, without the appropriate permission and not to install the automatic fire extinguishing systems provided for by the project on all floors.
• In December 2021, the court found Tanzyla Komkova guilty of taking a bribe, abuse of official powers and money laundering and sentenced her to 18 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony.