© Reuters
– Evgeny Zinichev
Russia’s Emergency Situations Minister Yevgeny Zinichev died during an exercise in the Siberian city of Norilsk. This was announced today by his department, quoted by BTA.
“It is with regret that we announce that during the performance of his official duty during his stay in Norilsk at an interdepartmental exercise to protect the Arctic zone from emergencies, saving human lives, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Evgeniy Zinichev tragically died,” the ministry said.
Zinichev was on a coastal rock with a videographer who slipped and fell into the water. The minister jumped to his rescue, but hit a rock and died on the spot, said Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of pro-Kremlin Russia Today (RT) television.
Reuters clarified that it was about Alexander Melnik, who made a documentary about the Arctic. Melnik slipped on a wet rock and Zinichev, who was next to him, tried to catch him, and then jumped after the documentary filmmaker. They both fell into a rocky mountain river and died. The incident took place in front of many witnesses, but the minister had the fastest reaction.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had been informed of the tragedy.
Zinichev, 55, has been emergency minister since 2018. Prior to that, he built a career mainly in various security services, in particular the one responsible for the protection of Russian heads of state. He was also part of the Soviet KGB in the last years of the Soviet Union. In 1991, he joined the Russian Service for the Protection of Prominent Persons, and since 2006 he has guarded Presidents Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. From 2016 until his appointment as head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Zinichev held the position of Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service.
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