The head of the Krasnodar Territory refused to confer the title “Hero of the Kuban” to the hunting inspector who died at the hands of a poacher

The region, which for some reason does not need heroes at all, was found on the map of Russia. The administration of the Krasnodar Territory has been stubbornly refusing to recognize a local hunting inspector who died in a fight with a poacher as a hero of the Kuban for a whole year now. The deputies and the leadership of the Ministry of Natural Resources have already asked for the forester, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, in his silence, remained unshakable to all petitions and persuasions.

54-year-old Viktor Zolotarev from the Krasnodar Territory has worked all his life in his small homeland. A lawyer by first education and a biologist by the second, he connected his life with veterinary medicine and hunting. The peak of a career for a man was the position of the Chief State Hunting Inspector. She became the last for him.

In March 2021, Zolotarev participated in a night raid and noticed a strange individual in the forest. The stranger was armed and came to the green massif obviously not to admire the trees and listen to the birds singing. Zolotarev tried to scare the poacher and demanded to put the gun on the ground. But he already seemed to have nothing to lose. Later, the investigation will find out that the illegal hunter had already had serious problems with the law in the past, which ended in a criminal record. A shootout ensued between Zolotarev and the poacher, the inspector was mortally wounded in the chest.

The deceased employee of the Krasnodar hunting supervision left a wife, three minor sons (the youngest is now four years old) and an elderly mother.

How did the Krasnodar Territory thank the nature conservationist for his dedication?

No way. The widow of Viktor Zolotarev receives an indecently modest pension for the loss of a breadwinner for herself and her children – 16 thousand rubles for four.

There are no other benefits for the inspector’s family in the foreseeable future. It would seem, why? After all, the state hunting inspector is essentially the same security official. He is armed, his task is to protect the forest from poachers. Most of them are also armed. That is, the work of an inspector is a daily risk to life. Logically, such risks should be insured by the state, and the family of the deceased should, after the death of her husband and father, be fully supported by the state for the rest of her life.

It sounds logical, but no – there is no system of state insurance for state hunting inspectors. There is no need to talk about private foresters. As Tatyana Aramileva, president of the Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz, told MK, the draft law amending the law “On Hunting”, which should approve the state insurance system for hunting inspectors, went through the first reading in the State Duma with big slippage.

– It’s just not fair. If a police officer dies, his family receives 180 times the income of the deceased as insurance. The family of the state hunting inspector does not receive a penny of insurance payments, because they are not provided for by law, – Aramileva was indignant.

As the president of Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz clarified, now the families of the dead inspectors can count, in addition to the survivor’s pension, on payment from the Social Insurance Fund for “professional injuries” and death at the workplace. This is a maximum of a million rubles. Yes, and with him, as usual, there is a nuance: applicants for payment have to prove that their loved one died precisely at the workplace and precisely while performing a dangerous task, and not out of their own stupidity and while walking through the forest.

But amendments that could solve the financial problems of the families of the dead hunting inspectors are still walking on the sidelines of the lower house of parliament. As Tatyana Aramileva noted, the relevant ministries have no complaints about the bill. What kind of muddle got them stuck between readings is a mystery.

So far, the only way to ensure a decent life for the family of an inspector who died heroically in the line of duty is to officially recognize him as a hero. Not even Russia – at least the Krasnodar Territory.

What, in fact, the administration of the region is already asking everyone who can. The Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz wrote to Governor Veniamin Kondratiev twice. Social activists asked the head of the region to award Viktor Zolotarev the title of “Hero of Kuban” posthumously. In addition to honor and respect, such a step would give quite tangible preferences to the family of the deceased. In addition to the current survivor’s pension of 16 thousand rubles, the widow and three children of the hero inspector would receive about 20 thousand rubles every month from the region.

Moreover, hunting industry experts are well aware that the lack of a state insurance system and guarantees in case of injury, professional injury or death makes the work of a hunting inspector, to put it mildly, not very attractive. Refusal to reward for the dedication of a professional who gave his life for the protection of nature will become an information bomb at all. Specialists simply do not want to engage in dangerous and thankless work, in which even a given life is not appreciated.

There is still no response to both petitions of Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz from the administration of the Krasnodar Territory.

The first deputy head of the Ministry of Natural Resources wrote to the Kuban governor Konstantin Tsyganov – No answer. Wrote the head of the State Duma Committee on Ecology and Natural Resources Dmitry Kobylkin.

“The Committee supports the petition of the Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz and asks for a positive decision on the issue of awarding the medal “Hero of the Kuban” (posthumously) to Zolotarev V.V.,” says Dmitry Kobylkin in a letter. There is no answer from the governor of the Krasnodar Territory.

Correspondence, similar to a novel in unanswered letters or a game of one goal, continues for a whole year.

In the fall, Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz finally received a hint of feedback from Kuban officials. And about. Head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Krasnodar Territory Sergey Eremin said that the department had prepared award documents for Viktor Zolotarev and sent them to the governor.

And that’s all, there is no answer from Mr. Kondratiev again.

Maybe the governor just doesn’t want to communicate with the public? But no, for some reason the head of the region is also laconic with his regional colleagues-officials:

“On April 12, 2021, and again on January 21, 2022, the Ministry sent petitions to the head of the administration (governor) of the Krasnodar Territory Kondratiev V.I.,” Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of the region Eremin reports to Dmitry Kobylkin.

Public activists are seriously puzzled: is there a person or body in our country at all, to whose request the head of the Krasnodar Territory will still give an intelligible answer? Yes, any answer at all. Who is able to break the silence of Veniamin Kondratiev? For now, this question is up in the air. Representatives of Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz continue to storm the impregnable governor with letters, backing them up with petitions from parliamentarians and federal officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources. The family of Viktor Zolotov, who died for the Kuban nature, continues to live on a pension of four, and the 14-year-old son of the inspector is already asking questions full of disappointment:

– The son of Zolotarev asks his mother: “Mom, why did the father leave us? He died so that the forest animal would live, and now they don’t even want to recognize him as a hero? ”, Tatyana Aramileva said.