The president! If you can hear us

Today in Murmansk mourning. Relatives and friends mourn those killed in the disaster of the floating drilling rig (FDR) "Kolskaya"

Today in Murmansk mourning. Relatives and friends mourn those killed in the disaster of the floating drilling rig (FDR) "Kolskaya". The flags are at half mast despite the fact that the search and rescue operation is still going on: the inhabitants of the seaside know very well that it is impossible to survive in the icy water - if the rescuers did not immediately lift you up ...

Today in Murmansk mourning. Relatives and friends mourn those killed in the disaster of the floating drilling rig (FDR) "Kolskaya". The flags are at half mast despite the fact that the search and rescue operation is still going on: the inhabitants of the coast are well aware that it is impossible to survive in the icy water - if the rescuers did not immediately pick you up ...

Raised - alive - 14 people.

There were 67 on board.

About the missing, to deep regret and grief, we can no longer talk.

Rescuers are doing their duty: they hope to raise the bodies of the dead from the surface - as many as they can find in a stormy sea. And the Sea of ​​Okhotsk practically never happens to others in winter. And if not a storm, then a strong icy wind is felt here all winter.

It is precisely these conditions, by the way, that exactly a year ago forced the fishermen to go into relatively solid ice to carry out operations to reload fish products - at least it shakes less there. That story of a month-long rescue operation ended. But then there were no casualties.

This time the sea did not forgive frank sloppiness.

And that it was precisely sloppiness, at least extreme unprofessionalism and a disregard for human lives, today many experts agree.

With the exception of those on whom decision-making directly depended - the leaders of the Kolskaya shipowner OJSC Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka. In any case, yesterday, on the day of mourning, acting. Director General of the company, Yuri Melekhov, made a statement in which he asserted that “all crew members, in accordance with international codes, underwent all types of special training ... Particular attention is paid at the enterprise to damage control on board and providing assistance to an object in distress.” In the statement - anyone can find it on the company's website - there are still a lot of correct and lofty words, which in this situation look only as an "excuse". Because there is no main thing: information about who personally made the decision to tow, what was the urgency, and why it was necessary to save on people.

These are not idle questions.

The Murmansk television company Arctic TV has already aired a story about the relatives of those who led - on the spot - the towing operation. The head of the navigation security service of Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka JSC Miakhil Tersin, a captain with 30 years of experience, was the senior in the caravan. Here is what his daughter Natalya Dmitrieva said, looking at the cameras and not hiding her tears:

• My father categorically refused to fly on this business trip. He told us several times before departure that the decision was erroneous, that it was impossible to overtake the Kola now. He was literally physically forced to go on this flight ... Our president! If you can hear us, then you must "catch up" with this situation!...

Lyudmila Kozlova, the wife of the captain of the Kolskaya, did not cry in front of the cameras, she probably had no more tears:

• The husband wrote to all authorities that towing should be prohibited. It got to the point that he wrote a letter of resignation. He told me on the phone: “If something happens, then I will be to blame ...” He asked that he be ordered - as a person who had left the ship - a return ticket. However, no one ordered a ticket for him and his application was not signed ...

Now, when the drilling rig is at the bottom, it is difficult to say what condition it was in. It will not be possible to raise it like "Bulgaria". However, experts note that 25 years (Kolskaya was built in Finland in 1985) for such facilities is quite a normal age for operation. Especially considering that only last spring the PBU completed a major overhaul. After that, she was transferred to the Far East. True, this route - from Murmansk to Kamchatka - she did not as a shipping object, but as a cargo, placed on the deck of a special transport vessel "Transshelf".

But already her autumn work in Kamchatka caused a lot of questions from environmentalists. As Aleksey Knizhnikov, head of the World Wildlife Fund's program on environmental policy for the oil and gas sector, said in an interview with Radio Liberty, “Gazprom has demonstrated blatant violations of key environmental safety standards. Drilling from the platform started with a negative environmental impact assessment. The Kamchatka environmental prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit against Gazprom in connection with violation of the law. But since the company did not react to anything, on October 17 we wrote an appeal to President Medvedev demanding that this dangerous project be stopped. Unfortunately, we did not receive a response from the head of state…

Many did not receive a response from the president. And apparently they won't.

As for the actions of the shipowner company, was it not the activity of environmentalists that made them relocate the PBU from the western coast of Kamchatka to Sakhalin? But the habit of spitting on nature, as a rule, develops into the habit of spitting on people.

The President of the Far Eastern Association of Sea Captains, Petr Osichansky, is deeply convinced that in the winter conditions of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, transportation could not be carried out categorically.

Powerful sea tugs of the shipping company "RIMSCO" have carried out dozens of complex, including transoceanic towing operations in recent years. However, the president of this company, Fazil Aliyev, is at a loss:

• It is not entirely clear why there were so many people on the towed object. After all, regulatory documents directly indicate that “to ensure the safety of a towed vessel, a qualified crew or its minimum necessary part, headed by the captain, may be on board. Towing a vessel with passengers on board is prohibited. Meanwhile, judging by the number of people on board the Kolskaya, it is clear that not all of them performed functions directly related to navigation. After all, at such a crossing, drilling masters and other specialists are actually passengers.

It seems that the owners of the platform simply saved money, not wanting to send some people by plane, or charter a special vessel for them. Thought to save on money, it turned out - on people.

At the same time, many experts, including Alexander Seleznev, a well-known and authoritative surveyor (marine expert) in the professional environment, who, on behalf of the insurance company, examined the Kolskaya before it was sent from Murmansk, say that it is now extremely difficult to draw any adequate conclusions about the key causes of the disaster: there is too little accurate information for this. There is too much to know, first of all, about the documents that were signed before the start of towing. Everything had to be written there - up to possible shelters from the storm along the route. However, along the route crossing the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, there are practically no such shelters - if you look closely at the map.

... After the summer tragedy of "Bulgaria" a lot was said about the predatory exploitation of the vessel, when, in order to squeeze out profits, a private ship owner goes to any violations in order to earn an extra penny. What will we hear today about the philosophy of state corporations?