The Kremlin appreciated the governor’s phrase “the phones have been removed” to the residents of Orsk

At a meeting with residents of Orsk affected by the flood, the Orenburg governor demanded that their phones be removed and complained about their vacation being disrupted. The Kremlin called the work with the population tense and assured of assistance.

The  presidential administration saw footage of Governor Denis Pasler communicating with flood-affected residents of Orsk, which became the reason for criticism against him. This was announced by presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, an RBC correspondent reports.

“Yes, we saw it. I repeat once again: if you heard the answer to the previous question, intense work is being carried out with the population. All leadership - municipal, district, regional - is in direct contact with the population. Contacts are being carried out in quite difficult conditions, and the population is being provided with all the necessary assistance,” Peskov said.

We are talking about a meeting that took place the day before, on April 8. The Orenburg governor, entering the room with those gathered, demanded: “Okay, all the phones have been removed. The phones have all been removed." Residents of Orsk indicated that they want to have proof that they will be promised. Pasler suggested relying on video recordings from local media, but townspeople suspected that elements of the meeting might be cut out. As Ural56 writes, those gathered then agreed on the shooting. In addition, Pasler complained about the interrupted vacation, taken “for the first time in five years.”

At the beginning of the meeting, a representative of the administration addressed the residents of Orsk, who suggested that they not “say that you, Orsk residents, are the most affected.” She said that “the same thing is happening” in Orenburg and she herself lost her home.

Orsk has been flooding since the evening of April 5, when a dam there broke for the first time in recent days. Almost 7 thousand houses with garden plots were flooded in the city, 2.4 thousand people were evacuated, among them about 800 children.

Throughout the region, 10.3 thousand residential buildings and 12.8 thousand household plots were flooded; the disaster affected 27 municipalities and 73 settlements. 6.4 thousand people were evacuated, including 1.7 thousand children.

The water level in Orsk, partially flooded due to the flood of the Ural River, dropped by 35 cm by April 9. Now the water reaches 928 cm. A water level of 700 cm is considered dangerous.

Residents of Orsk gathered for a rally near the administration building and demanded the resignation of Mayor Vasily Kozupitsa in connection with the authorities’ actions on the evacuation and payments to the victims. “Their other questions are how we should live, where, many have children. There was no answer,” one of the rally participants told RBC.