Statement by the YABLOKO party, 13.07.2015

YABLOKO express deep and heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of the paratroopers who tragically died in the billet of Air Landing Troops training establishment 242 in Svetly settlement, the Omsk region.

The number of victims is striking – 23 people, probably this is not the final number.

But the most striking thing is that young people who were called up to serve their country are dying not from the enemies’ bullets at war but from Russian corruption, from the criminal system of briberies and one hand washing the other which has formed not only within the Ministry for Defense but the whole system of public administration.

The load carrying structure of the training establishmemt billet which collapsed and buried dozens of military men was repaired a year and a half ago and accepted by the Ministry for Defense commission which didn’t charge any pretensions to the quality of the work. Within the practice of Russia’s corruption developments this means the following: the company which formally won the contract for the building repairment paid a fat cut to some official (or officials) of the Ministry for Defense: firstly, for the order receipt, secondly, for the acceptance of rotten work. Since the provider had to pay a fat sum of the cut to the one who ordered the work they had to save on the repairment itself not to stay without profit. It turns out that the unfilled repairment of the load carrying structure is the sum of the cuts to the officials of the Ministry.

Such situation can be observed within the system of Russia’s public administration pretty often. But this time it took the lives of Russia’s soldiers at peacetime.

This time the tragedy in Omsk cannot be attributed to the intrigues of the West, neo-Nazi in Ukraine or foreign agents. The society must demand from the authorities not only a transparent investigation of the case and the names of certain corrupt officials in the Ministry for Defense but the change of the whole uncontrolled and corrupt system of state procurement especially within the military department.

If things remain the way they are such tragedies will finally become Russia’s sad reality.

Sergei Mitrokhin,
YABLOKO Chairman