The ex-head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kuzbass received 10.5 years in the case of the fire in “Zimney Vishne”

In Kemerovo, the court sentenced the former head of the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations Alexander Mamontov to ten and a half years in prison in the case of the fire at the “Zimnyaya Vishnya” shopping center, which killed 60 people. He will serve his sentence in a high-security prison. The former chief inspector of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for fire supervision Hryhoriy Terentyev received eight and a half years in prison.

The court also ordered Mamontov to pay a fine of 900,000 rubles, Terentyev – 120,000. Both were left with the right to hold state positions for two years.

Alexander Mamontov and Grigory Terentyev were charged with three counts – 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 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 closed

Mamontov denied all the charges. Earlier, the prosecutor’s office requested 14 years of imprisonment for him, ten for Terentyev.

Relatives of those killed in the Kemerovo shopping center “Zimnyaya Vishnya” filed a civil lawsuit for 42 million rubles to the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia, as well as to Mamontov and Terentyev.

• On March 25, 2018, a major fire occurred in the “Winter Cherry” shopping center in Kemerovo. 60 people died, including 37 children, and another 147 people were injured. As a result of the fire, five criminal cases were initiated against 15 people: employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, officials and employees of the shopping center.
• The investigation came to the conclusion that on the day of the fire in the mall, the fire alarm system did not work, and the guard on duty turned off the fire protection system. In addition, the emergency exits from “Zimney Vyshny” were closed.
• 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. He was found guilty of paying a large bribe to Tanzile Komkova, the former director of the regional administration of Gosstroynadzor. 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.
• Also in 2021, the court found guilty of providing services that do not meet the requirements for the safety of life and health of children, and violating fire safety requirements Yulia Bogdanova – the ex-general director of the company that owns “Zimney Vyshny”, as well as the manager and technical director of the shopping center Nadezhda Suddenok and Georgy Sobolev . They received 14, 13 and 11 years of imprisonment, respectively. The head of the “Sistemny integrator” company, which was engaged in the maintenance of the fire alarm system in the mall, and his subordinate Alexander Nikitin received 6.5 and 5.5 years in prison on charges of violating fire safety requirements. Security guard “Zimney Vyshny” Sergey Artyushin received 8 years in prison for providing services that do not meet security requirements.