Me and Putin in Krymsk. How it was

Prologue.

When in Rostov they announced a collection of aid for the victims in Krymsk, my wife and I decided to donate too and brought warm clothes and bed linen to the public (Public Library, a gathering place for informal and free movements in Rostov-on-Don). It would seem that the duty has been fulfilled. But then a friend of extreme right-wing views called and asked if I could help him take his things to Krymsk. I couldn’t refuse my friend and told him that he could count on me. As a result, he managed to transport all the things to Krymsk, and my services were not in demand. But the desire to go to the Krasnodar region remains. The Internet came to the rescue. From social networks, I learned that in Rostov there is a group that collects help for the victims and sends it to Krymsk, to local volunteers. Having called on Friday the 13th (some people say the number is bad, but for me all numbers are good for good deeds), we agreed to meet on Saturday morning at the aid station. I insisted on 7 am. Georgy (the main collector of aid in Rostov) insisted on 11 and begged to be given the opportunity to get at least a little sleep. In the end we agreed on 9:30. In addition to humanitarian aid, Zhora promised to give me the most valuable cargo - two volunteers who had to be taken to Krymsk and handed over to the receiving party against receipt.

Road.

I try to do everything together with my other half. The upcoming trip was no exception. We registered my wife as a navigator and co-pilot, allocated a back seat for passengers, and left the trunk for cargo. Arriving the next day at exactly 9:30 am at the starting point, I discovered the presence of a gazelle into which a boy in a blue T-shirt with a “DIMA” badge was trying to throw a huge pile of things.

As it turned out, the “DIMA” badge with its owner is the very second half of the valuable cargo. The first part of the cargo with the formidable name Katya was late, but promised to arrive any minute. Georgy, as the main manager of our action and part-time owner of the telephone numbers and addresses of important defendants in the case from Krymsk, was not visible on the horizon and did not answer phone calls. Soon Katya the volunteer appeared. She, like the owner of the “DIMA” badge, comes from Novocherkassk. They are both 24 years old. Katya is a member of “The Other Russia” and became a volunteer for the first time. She is going to Krymsk for a couple of days. Dmitry is going to stay in the disaster zone for a couple of weeks. Dima is a non-partisan. But he also considers it his duty to help people. Why I focus on partisanship/non-partisanship - you will understand later from my story. While we were waiting for Zhora, about 2 hours flew by unnoticed. During this time, the mountain near Gazelka continued to grow. People drove up in expensive cars. They silently took out the packed children's things, strollers, food from the trunks, gave them to Dima and left. Unknown guys called and said that they had 200 pairs of rubber boots and 1 ton of liquid soap for the victims. The weight is clearly not for Gazelle and our Ford. Luckily for us, a KamAZ truck was hiding in the bushes, the driver of which promised to pick up the soap. That's what they decided on. I will take the volunteers with a load of medicines, Gazelka will pick up boots, and KamAZ will take the rest of the cargo from the basement and load it with liquid soap. We decided to move not in a column, but each on our own, so as not to wait for anyone along the way and not to be delayed. Having said goodbye to Zhora, we set off.

According to the map, Krymsk is 360 km away. In reality - 420 and 7 hours. The main congestion occurs in the Krasnodar Territory, as road reconstruction there has been ongoing for several years. Not far from Krymsk we met a convoy of buses with children, accompanied by a traffic police car. As it turned out later, the news reported that it was the children of Krymsk who were being taken to pioneer camps for the whole summer. Krymsk itself met us at the entrance by police officers wearing respirators. They didn't stop anyone, they just monitored the movement. Subsequently, police foot patrols were constantly encountered throughout the city, and guys with sticks were on duty at intersections. Since not all areas have electricity, increased security is fully justified.

Destination.

At 19-00 we arrived at our destination. It is located in the part of the city that was not damaged by the flood, in the private sector. The owner of the house, Elena, is from Tataria herself. With her husband and small children, they bought this house just two months ago. “We moved to a quiet and peaceful place, away from the bustle and with good ecology,” Elena laughs. Their point is one of the very first to provide assistance. Already at 3 a.m., immediately after the tragedy, it posted an online appeal for help to the victims. And the next morning the first volunteers began to flock to her. At the moment, the entire yard, summer kitchen, and adjacent area on the street are completely filled with boxes of baby food and bales of clothes.

There is a separate mountain of drinking water.

There is a lot of help. In the garden there is a supply of shovels and a rake. Separately - food for pets. Under the canopy there is toilet paper, diapers, pads. Elena, with her husband and neighbors, takes the cargo herself, and later distributes it herself. A local taxi driver helps her by delivering targeted aid. They work conscientiously and absolutely free. At first, the guys helped everyone, but now they started asking for passports and checking on the map who lived where. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in Krymsk who profit from the tragedy. A woman with a child approached us. She listened to our conversation and asked for help. She said her house was completely flooded. The smell of alcohol and the demeanor told a different story. I wonder how her son’s scooter survived? There is not a drop of dirt on it, it sparkles with cleanliness. Elena gave her two bags of food and hygiene products.

After some time, the same boy arrived alone and asked for a blanket for his grandmother - he received a blanket with a pillow. There are also looters. They dismantle abandoned cars, pull out radios, and operate in destroyed houses. Local residents tell how people in jeeps come to aid centers to get free food for dogs. There are a lot of clothes and warm things in the city. It lies at the bus stop in huge heaps, ownerless and of no use to anyone. The most popular now, according to local residents, are:

- laundry soap (bar/liquid);
- dishwashing/floor cleaning products;
- disinfectants;
- toilet paper;
- disposable tableware/disposable gowns/respirators;
- garbage bags;
- gloves for gardening and rubber;
- galoshes/rubber boots;
- shovels/rakes/scoops/buckets;
- cots/blankets/pillows/bed linen.

Locals also don’t like it when someone brings help under the auspices of a party or movement. This is unpleasant for everyone. It’s unpleasant for both volunteers and victims. Indignantly, Lena takes out a package with the symbols of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation from the pile of aid.

The bag contains a thermos with tea, sausage in vacuum packaging, cookies, seeds. The set is needed in the first hours after the tragedy, but the symbols of the party kill the mood. And then she proudly shows off her bags, which she distributes to those in need: “Everyone gets two bags. In one there is food - canned food, cereals, pasta, tea, cookies, sweets. In the second there is a household kit - toilet paper, napkins, soap, hygiene products.” The weight of each package is 2-3 kilograms. I ask about the symbols of “United Russia” on soap and water. “ER” did not come to her point, but there was help in the city. Also in the city handing out LDPR T-shirts. Lena received an anti-Putin sticker.

Her son plays with the sticker with pleasure, unaware of what passions are now raging in Krymsk itself and beyond. The city itself feels tense and numb. Many residents are still in shock from what happened.

Everyone talks about mountains of corpses, but if you ask if any of your relatives died, everyone shakes their heads and thanks fate. The Ministry of Emergency Situations in the region is represented by an international team - guys from Chechnya, Buryatia, Volgograd, Samara work side by side. No rush, no emotions. The work is done measuredly, as befits professionals.

The most in-demand jobs in Krymsk right now are roofers, glaziers, carpenters, finishers, and plumbers. Queues for car washes and car services are scheduled a month in advance.

We left the city at night, a few hours before the arrival of the guarantor of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Epilogue.

There were EMERCOM forces in the tragedy zone, but they were clearly not sufficient for such a volume of potential destruction. They tried to help people, but their strength was too small. There is also a shortage of equipment and labor at the moment.

The city is completely unsanitary. Many residents are unable to get vaccinated due to vaccine shortages. Only on the 10th day after the tragedy did the authorities admit mistakes in organizing the rescue and restoration of the city. Only now additional forces from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Army have been deployed. Of course, there is the fault of local authorities and the local leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, since they did not warn the population about the danger. There was a creeping line on TV, but in Krymsk there was no light in many houses due to a thunderstorm. Therefore, no one knew that they had to be prepared for the worst. Cellular communication worked, but there was no SMS warning. Control of the state of Krymsk services lies entirely with the local governor. Krymsk, Kushchevka, the trip of the killers of a farmer’s family to Putin’s inauguration as part of a delegation from the administration of the Krasnodar Territory - this indicates a certain competence of the local authorities. Whether it was possible to save everyone or prevent the tragedy is unlikely. Especially considering that the service of the Hydrometeorological Center in Russia has collapsed and we are not able to predict disasters.

Unfortunately, we missed each other a bit with Putin. It’s interesting to look into his eyes, ask questions, understand what he’s thinking about when he comes to the scene of the tragedy to talk to people. And he does this not on the first day of the tragedy, but only on the ninth. And Channel One presents this to us as a heroic act of the President. But what is heroism? What does he keep promising? “We will do everything, we will definitely help...” So do it. Help. Come on the first day. Walk with people, talk. And most importantly, don't lie. Although, I demand something a lot from him. This is our President...

The volunteers made me very happy. Completely different people, from different parts of Russia, despite differences in age and political beliefs, they are all clearing away the rubble side by side and helping the victims.

Perhaps, following the tragedy, it is worth creating a volunteer organization that will unite all like-minded people across the country and allow for more competent coordination of actions.

Someone gives us the example of New Orleans, which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Yes, I agree, then the tragedy claimed many lives due to the miscalculations of the authorities and the negligence of local services. But few people remember that the hurricane hit a city with a population of 450,000 people, of whom 440,000 were evacuated. More than 80% of the city’s territory was flooded, and the sewerage, water supply, and electricity systems were completely disabled. Only 10,000 remained in the city, of which about 1,500 people died. Now compare Krymsk with a population of 50,000, where none of the 50,000 were evacuated. Perhaps only in the USA is it customary for management to take all mistakes upon themselves, rather than shift them to nature and chance. After Hurricane Katrina, Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, an analogue of our Ministry of Emergency Situations, almost immediately resigned. Also, the head of the New Orleans police announced his resignation. 60 New Orleans police officers were fired from service and 25 were demoted for poor evacuation management. 5 police officers were sentenced to actual prison terms ranging from 6 to 65 years. It was after New Orleans that a large-scale modernization of the rescue service began in the United States. The actions of the American authorities to eliminate the consequences of the hurricane caused severe criticism in American society, which put an end to the popularity of then President George W. Bush. I can also remember Japan, where the government made a public apology to the elderly for the tsunami. And Georgia, where Mikheil Saakashvili wandered knee-deep in dirty and cold water with the residents, asking how and who needed help.

Our society, the Russian people, faces a choice. Either we, as always, will forgive and forget everything, or we will draw certain conclusions and make a decision.

Photos from Krymsk here