Petrozavodsk city court announced the verdict of six persons involved in the case of the death of children on Syamozero. The former director of the Syamozero Park Hotel, Elena Reshetova, and her deputy, Vadim Vinogradov, each received 9.5 years of a general regime colony under Article 125 of the Criminal Code (“Leaving in danger”) and Part 3 of Art. 238 of the Criminal Code ("Provision of services that do not meet safety requirements"). Camp instructor Valery Krupoderschikov was acquitted under the 238th article, received 8 months in a penal colony for the 125th, but was released from serving the sentence due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Three more defendants were acquitted: Instructor Pavel Ilyin, Head of the Karelian Rospotrebnadzor, Anatoly Kovalenko, and Acting Head of the Rospotrebnadzor Department for Karelia Lyudmila Kotovich. All three have the right to rehabilitation.
Vinogradov and Reshetov in June 2016 were taken into custody, Kovalenko was under house arrest, the other persons involved in the case gave a written undertaking not to leave.
Elena Reshetova has two children, the court decided to transfer them to the guardianship authorities. The claims to Reshetova, Vinogradov and Krupoderschikov were also satisfied on the compensation of moral damage to the victims of the case.
The prosecutor's office intends to appeal the verdict. The state prosecution demanded to assign a real term to all persons involved in the case: Reshetova - 9.5 years, Vinogradov - 8 years, Krupoderschikov - 6, Ilyin - 4 years in a general regime colony, and Kotovich and Kovalenko - 6 years in a colony-settlement.
Earlier, the paramedic of the Suojärvi District Hospital, Irina Shcherbakova, who accepted the call of a boy drowning in a lake for a rally, was sentenced to 3 years in a settlement colony with a delay in the execution of the sentence until her 14th birthday of 2006 was reached.
The tragedy on Syamozero occurred on June 18, 2016. The day before, 47 children aged 12 to 14, who were resting in the camp “Park-Hotel Syamozero”, accompanied by four young instructors went on two canoes and one inflatable boat to the water hike. Around 1:00 pm, when the group expected to cross about four kilometers by water to Fokensuari Island, a storm began and the connection with the group was lost.
To gallery page
Two boats with 24 children knocked over. The children found themselves in icy water in jackets that were not matched to size - they were large and hamper movement. Only 10 of them managed to reach the shore and survive. Storm group scattered on different islands on the lake.
On that day, an emergency message was received from the 12-year-old Vsevolod Zaslonov to the paramedic of the ambulance at the Suojärvi Hospital, Irina Shcherbakova, but she ignored the message, mistaking it for childish prank. The boy eventually died.
The camp management did not report a loss of communication with the group for almost the whole day. Only on June 19, from the camp, they called the neighboring village of Kudama and said that they could not find the children. Then emergency services were called and a rescue operation began. Volunteers and instructors from neighboring camps joined the search for the missing.
Survivors were found at a distance of several kilometers from each other. Frozen and frightened, they were immediately evacuated to medical institutions - many were diagnosed with hypothermia and shock. The search for the dead began - at first, 13 bodies were found, one boy was reported missing for a long time, but in the end a week later he was found dead near the village of Lakhta.
Upon the death of children, a criminal case was opened under several articles - “Leaving in danger”, “Negligence”, “Provision of services that do not meet safety requirements”. Camp director Elena Reshetova and her deputy Vadim Vinogradov were detained and interrogated. Reshetova told investigators that she did not know about the campaign. Vinogradov, in turn, was aware of the storm warning, but allowed the children to go to the water. It also turned out that one of the boats participating in the hike was technically faulty.
According to investigators, Reshetova knew about the exit to the water, and Vinogradov informed her about the storm. Moreover, the leaders of the camp tried to hide the tragedy and did not contact emergency services for a long time.
Instructors who were with children in the campaign, came under house arrest and house arrests. An investigation was also initiated against officials of Rospotrebnadzor.
57 people were recognized as victims of the tragedy. During the investigation, more than 1.5 thousand people were questioned, 500 of whom were minors.
June 20, 2016 was declared a day of mourning in Karelia. In tribute to the memory of the children who died near the Syamozero, an Orthodox chapel was erected and a memorial was erected.