While the Orenburg region is going under water due to a dam breaking on the Ural River, conditions are being created for massive fires in the Kaluga region. In both cases, people are already homeless. The only difference is that the flood occurred not only due to “untimely measures taken” to maintain the structure “in proper technical condition,” but also due to severe flooding, and houses in the Kaluga region are burning and will continue to burn solely due to negligence responsible persons, inaction of authorities, law enforcement officers and judges.
The Evseev family from the Kaluga region has been waiting for gasification for their village and home for many years. And when she waited, she lost the roof over her head. The house burned down in the winter of 2019, almost as soon as the gas was turned on. The cause of the fire was violations made during the installation of the equipment – a fireproof cut was not installed on the chimney of the gas furnace, which led to the fire. The disabled pensioners Evseevs miraculously survived on their own, remaining in the ashes.
Now to this loss of theirs we can also add the 5 years of life stolen from them, spent by the Evseevs searching for justice and compensation for damage in the courts, supervisory and law enforcement agencies. Then, in the winter of 2019, the case seemed so simple and obvious that no one could even imagine that the proceedings would drag on for years, and the system would aim to deprive victims of deserved compensation.
Indeed, the cause of the fire (lack of fireproof cutting on the stove chimney) was established very quickly. This was confirmed by the conclusions of two state examinations.
Everything became clear immediately about the culprits. The main culprit was found to be Gazprom’s subsidiary, Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye Kaluga JSC, which carries out construction control. It was this organization that made it possible to begin using improperly equipped fire-hazardous equipment in a residential building. Gazprom functionaries then signed the act of compliance without raising their asses from their soft chairs. They were just too lazy to go to the facility to make sure whether it was ready to start gas or not.
The company was found guilty by the first and second courts, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Investigative Committee. To top it all off, the guilty daughter of Gazprom actually admitted her own guilt and even offered the Yevseev family, who were left homeless, monetary compensation without presenting a writ of execution. However, the cunning Kaluga Gazprom employees decided to save money and, as often happens, offered an amount significantly lower than the actual losses of the victims. Pensioners refused the handout in the hope of getting theirs back by law.
In addition to Gazprom’s subsidiary, there are two more defendants in the case: a construction entrepreneur and the All-Russian Voluntary Firefighting Society (VDPO) of the Kaluga Region. The first one actually installed the equipment in violation of fire safety technology, for which he later gave written confessions to the investigator.
In turn, the VDPO, hired by the Gazprom Gas Distribution of Kaluga company, neglected its responsibilities – they did not carry out an inspection, they waved away the safety act without looking. The organization also admitted guilt, although it decided to shift responsibility for this to specific performers from among its employees, which it petitioned for in court.
As in the case of the gas distribution company, the other two defendants were found guilty by the courts of first and second instance, as well as the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. It would seem that the cause of the fire is known, the culprits of what happened are also known, all that remains is to compensate for the losses, and justice will triumph. But it turned out that the real suffering of the homeless Evseevs was just beginning. The repentance of the perpetrators, as it turned out, was feigned. They weren’t going to pay the bills. And the investigative, supervisory and judicial authorities decided to assist the defendants in this. As if by the very fact of finding the perpetrators guilty, they have already benefited the victims, and let them do not only without a home, but also without compensation. The miracles of balancing act of the law enforcement system began.
Investigators refused to register the case materials, experts began to underestimate the amount, arguments, documents and even living people began to disappear from the case.
For example, employees of the Investigative Committee engaged in outright sabotage. For more than a year and a half they did not register the case materials received from the Ministry of Emergency Situations. As a result of this demonstrative inaction of the investigators, the statute of limitations under the article of the Criminal Code under which the case was initiated has expired.
A few days before the appeal, the main culprit, Gazprom Gas Distribution Kaluga, completely disappeared from the resolution. They had to return it with the help of the prosecutor’s office.
Or another episode. The state expert, who several times underestimated the amount of damage in the interests of the defendants, cannot be found by the same investigative authorities for several years after a complaint from the injured party. The expert turned out to be some kind of phantom. Investigators cannot even establish his passport details, which they officially notified the participants in the process. Moreover, the physical absence of the expert and reliable information in the examination itself did not raise doubts among anyone except the victims themselves.
In addition, while the process was dragging on, the amount of recovery under the claim (according to the law on the Protection of Consumer Rights) should have increased due to penalties and fines. But the courts of both instances did not impose penalties, and imposed a fine only for the symbolic amount of moral damage of several thousand rubles. The courts did not assess anything for the total damage calculated in millions of rubles.
The plaintiffs faced even greater bias in the cassation court. The Saratov Court of Cassation in its ruling stated: “The court agrees that falsified acts led to the fire, but does not see a cause-and-effect relationship between the issuance of falsified safety acts and the guilt of the organizations that issued them.”. This is a judge about VDPO and JSC Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye Kaluga, who illegally allowed gas to be released into a house unprepared for this, after which the gas exploded and the house burned down. If you once again carefully re-read what the Saratov judge wrote, it turns out that the fire occurred due to the fault of the documents (“the acts led to the fire”) but not due to the fault of the “organizations that issued them.” It’s like blaming the bullet, not the shooter, for murder with a firearm.
At the end of 2023, the Saratov Court of Cassation made the perpetrators, even those who admitted their guilt, innocent. The court confirmed that the acts issued by Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie Kaluga JSC and the Kaluga Region VDPO were falsified, but this did not stop the judge from taking their side and declaring their innocence. In general, there is a lot of strange and absurd things in this case.
But the worst thing in this story is that what happened to the Evseev family could happen to hundreds and even thousands of residents of the Kaluga region. The negligence shown by those responsible for construction and fire control is in the nature of an epidemic. Permits are universally issued without proper inspections and examinations. All neighbors of the Evseevs, the entire village of JSC Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye Kaluga and VDPO were issued certificates without going to the site, without checking the quality of the equipment connection before starting the gas.
It is obvious that such a murderous practice has developed not in a single village or region, but throughout the entire Kaluga region. Reports of fires in the region are becoming a daily norm. Here are just a few messages from this week:
- April 18: The dacha burned down at night in the Kaluga region – A fire occurred in the village of Kamenka, Duminichsky district. The fire completely destroyed the wooden building. The cause of the fire is being established.
- April 18: Three people were hospitalized after a night fire in Kaluga.
- April 17: A residential building burned down in the Tarussky district – A fire occurred in the village of Makarovo. The fire completely destroyed a private house on Lugovaya Street.
- April 16: A fire occurred on Kaluga Rublyovka – on Zarechnaya Street a bathhouse was burning on the territory of a private house. The wooden structure was extinguished.
- April 15: A residential building burned down in the Kaluga region – a fire occurred in the Yukhnovsky district. Fire destroyed a wooden building in the village of Pokrov.
