Tragedy at Syamozero: trainees were given long sentences

Convicts must pay almost 54 million rubles to victims

Very casually and imperceptibly yesterday, another verdict was announced regarding the death of children on Syamozero in Karelia. Despite the fact that the tragedy that claimed the lives of 14 schoolchildren occurred seven years ago, in the distant summer of 2016, the end to this matter has not yet been set.

This is not the first time that the verdict was announced to Pavel Ilyin and Valery Krupoderschikov, former instructors of the children’s sanatorium and health camp of Park-Hotel Syamozero LLC. At that time, both guys were student trainees, they were still recent children themselves, they took a direct part in preparing the fateful campaign. Although Ilyin left the route that day and went to the city, as he needed a consultation to defend his diploma. Krupoderschikov remained with his charges until the last, and he himself almost died when he dragged drowning children to the shore.

However, it was they who were eventually appointed switchmen.

Local journalists were immensely surprised by the senseless cruelty of the verdict, especially considering that this was already the third trial against the guys – they were acquitted several times at different judicial levels, but the prosecutor’s office appealed the verdict again and again.

The state prosecution insisted that the trip was made on faulty watercraft that exceeded the carrying capacity, the children did not have life jackets of the required sizes, messages about an approaching storm were ignored – and the main culprits of all this were the trainees, and who else?

It was not for nothing that Syamozero was called a “death camp”: children lived in leaky tents, there was nowhere to wash, food was stored haphazardly, rotten fruit was given out, vacationers complained about the cold, the inability to dry clothes, bad water and food.

There was also trouble with the equipment for water trips. The life jackets were not life jackets, but safety ones, which would not hold the swimmer if he lost consciousness. In addition, some were simply not the right size. At the same time, children from low-income families ended up in the camp on budget vouchers, which were paid for by the state. In theory, it was supposed to control how children rest.

Yes, numerous violations in Syamozero have been recorded by regulatory organizations for several years. But at the same time, they did nothing to correct the situation, although once the camp management was even fined… 100 rubles.

Other defendants in the case, ex-director of the camp Elena Reshetova and her former deputy Vadim Vinogradov, were found guilty even earlier and received a sentence of nine and a half years in prison.

But local officials – the ex-head of the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor Anatoly Kovalenko and the head of the department Lyudmila Kotovich, who were accused of negligence, got away unscathed. The parents of the dead children insisted on the guilt of the RPN leaders, who did not close the camp, despite the chaos going on inside it.

However, the Petrozavodsk City Court came to the conclusion that both defendants were innocent,

But now the State Prosecution insisted on a harsh and realistic sentence for the former students. As local journalists noted, the young people came to the announcement of the verdict without their belongings; they probably did not believe that the punishment would involve imprisonment. However, they were immediately taken into custody.

Krupoderschikov will have to spend 6 years in a correctional colony, Ilyin – 5 years. The judge also satisfied the civil claims of the victims. Most likely, the convicts will appeal again, but this time their prison term has already begun.

In total, Krupoderschikov must now pay 36 million rubles in compensation for moral damage, and Ilyin – 17 million 700 thousand.

By the way, the acquitted deputy head of the regional Rospotrebnadzor, Anatoly Kovalenko, later exercised the right to rehabilitation and received monetary compensation from the state in the amount of four million rubles.