Putin Faces Criticism Regarding Corruption After Deaths of Children From a Fire in Siberia

Putin, newly re-elected, faces a public crisis regarding the tragic fire in a mall in Siberia.

It has been a month since President Vladimir V. Putin, president of Russia, has launched the new space mission to Mars and in turn secured his security in the upcoming election. However, he has received backlashes regarding the incidents in a mall in Siberia that was burned down on Sunday that led to deaths of at least 64 people, with the majority of them being children.

The same public that just voted overwhelmingly to re-elect Mr. Putin is questioning his validity and responsibility regarding this tragic incident. Many have accused of official bungling and corrupting in directly contributing to this fire, and this fury has overpowered any other spotlight on international affairs that Russia is also involved in. As of Monday, 23 countries have expelled Russian diplomats yet this news was receiving almost zero coverage as the fire has occupied the majority of news and broadcasting time since Sunday.

The Kremlin’s normal response to this kind of diplomatic, national crisis would be to find some means to bolster patriotic sentiments and boast Russia’s strength and security in the world. Yet these efforts all fell flat at the face of announcements of condolences towards the children’s deaths in Siberia. Putin has dropped everything to go to Kemerovo, which is over 2000 miles east of Moscow, to send his condolences and lay flowers down next to the memorial in Siberia.

However, an opposing story is also running on Russian media, led by an anti-corruption campaigner, Aleksei A. Nalvany, who was banned from running against Mr. Putin in this election. To counter this opposing narrative, Putin has also got a head start in working by putting security apparatus to work and promising the relatives of the victims that the Investigative Committee had already assigned 100 investigators to find those who are responsible.

So far the cause of the fire has been attributed to “criminal negligence”and “slovenliness”, and the regional governor, Aman Tuleyev, has appeared in public for forgiveness and demanded opposition activists and campaigners to stop exploiting this tragedy to their political advantage and sway: “It’s sacrilege when there’s grief and you use it to solve your own problems.”

The public is also outraged that this tragedy sprang forth from lack of enforcement and regulations in building codes and safety regulations due to the push of corrupt officials, who often lax off the implementation of these rules for cash money and bribes. Even though there has been speculations of the cause of this tragedy, many have commented that the ultimate, rooted cause is greed and corruption.

Thousands have gathered in the central square of Kemerovo and appealed for the resignation of the governor of the region and accused him of underestimating the number of victims to conceal the truth from the public and ease their anger.

To pacify the public fury, a Kremlin has attempted to seize control of a privately owned television channel, NTV and this channel is now one of Mr. Putin’s biggest advocates under the control of its new leader. This attempt, however, has only heightened the public’s anger and distrust towards the current administration as the tightening of news media only seems to serve the opposite of what the public demands.

The public is provoked even further facing the criticism and questioning regarding their intentions of overexploiting the tragedy for their advantage and political goals. Mr. Vostikov, who has released an emotionally-loaded and targeted post against corruption, remarked: “I have lost my sister Sabadash Alyona Igorevna; my wife, Vostrikova Elena Sergeevna; three children — 5, 7 and 2 years old,” he said. “I came here for self-promotion, did I?”

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