Onishchenko made a diagnosis to the Ministry of Transport

Bulgarian fog has quarreled Russian officials

The chief state sanitary doctor of Russia, who also heads Rospotrebnadzor, Gennady Onishchenko, yesterday sharply criticized the Ministry of Transport for the way the department solved the problem of Russian tourists who were “stuck” in Bulgaria at the end of last week due to thick fog. Mr. Onishchenko allowed himself to go beyond this particular story. According to him, quoted by Interfax, what happened in Bulgaria “forces us once again, but now on a public scale, to raise the question of the inconsistency of the position of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, expressed in order No. 82 of June 28, 2007” ( which approved one of the key civil aviation documents - federal aviation rules “General rules for air transportation of passengers, baggage, cargo and requirements for servicing passengers, shippers, consignees”). Representatives of the Ministry of Transport yesterday called Mr. Onishchenko’s statement “at least incorrect.” The department's press service also hinted that the chief physician does not understand the distribution of functions and responsibilities between various federal agencies.

As you know, from January 10 to 14, several flights from Bulgaria to Russia were postponed. As a result, about 600 Russian tourists did not return from the Balkan country on time. The greatest trials fell on 250 of them. This group spent an extra four days in Bulgaria and arrived in Russia only yesterday on a Siberia Airlines flight.

“What is happening at Bulgarian airports and other popular winter holiday destinations among Russians thanks to the efforts of Russian television online demonstrates the vulnerability of Russians in front of all-powerful air carriers,” Mr. Onishchenko said on this occasion. However, he directed the main criticism at the Ministry of Transport and the rules approved by order of the Minister of Transport (came into force on September 27, 2007 after approval by the Ministry of Justice). They replaced a similar document that had been in force in Soviet and then Russian civil aviation since 1985. The most important difference between the new rules and the previous version can be considered the provisions on how exactly airlines must compensate their customers for delays or cancellations of flights.

It was the practical implementation of these provisions that caused the disapproval of the country's chief physician. “The situation today can be commented as follows. On the one hand, there is a normative act with a very optimal and promising name, and it seems that from a legal point of view the problem has been solved. On the other hand, there are Russian tourists and ordinary citizens who pay full coin to air carriers for the dubious pleasure of being in the waiting rooms of foreign ports for days with small children - without the food or hotel services required by law,” Mr. Onishchenko said. He saw the reason for this situation in the fact that the Ministry of Transport entrusted the Rosaviation agency, which is part of the ministry, with monitoring the observance of the rights of passengers. “Disregarding the general position according to which agencies do not carry out control and supervisory functions at all, the Ministry of Transport, as it were, entrusts supervision to its own agency,” Mr. Onishchenko emphasized. -- With the release of this departmental document (Order of the Ministry of Transport No. 82. - Ed. ), the Federal Service (Rospotrebnadzor. - Ed. ) raised the question of its incompatibility with the law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” and, therefore, the need for it cancellation by the government of the Russian Federation."

In response, the press service of the Ministry of Transport also found something to remind the critic. “As for control over the implementation of the rules, it is carried out by the Federal Service for Supervision of Transport (not part of the Ministry of Transport - Ed. ), and the competence of Rosaviation includes issues of organizing their implementation,” says a press release published yesterday -release of the Ministry of Transport. And the actions of domestic airlines in bad weather in Bulgaria have earned the full approval of the ministry. In this case, “the new federal aviation rules were fully complied with by the carriers,” said the press service of the transport department.

Mikhail KUKUSHKIN