Talk politics.

Just when you thought I was one of those many pro-Russia Putino-trolls who'd suck Putin's dick on a regular basis...


Here's the deal. Russia has basically left 26 miners to die, and hasn't given a shit about it. Do bear with me.

Vorkuta is a town situated way beyond the polar circle, in the Russian republic of Komi. Population 60,000. Winter goes on for 8 months there, and in December and January the temperatures often drop below -60 C. The town was founded in 1936 by geologists and got town status in 1943. At the time, vast reserves of coal were discovered there. Coal mining has been its main industry ever since - a typical mining town.

Remarkably, until about a decade ago there was no asphalt road to the town, and railroad was the only means of reaching it. The town's main landmark is the huge concentration camp where the enemies of the Soviet regime were being kept. In the 50s it reached a population of 70,000 prisoners, which surpassed that of the town nearby. After Stalin's death in the 50s there was a rebellion in that camp. Thousands of prisoners participated. The rebellion became known as the Vorkuta Rebellion, although the prisoners were unarmed. The Soviet regime eventually decided to release the criminal convicts and keep the political prisoners in the camp. Thousands of Vorkuta inhabitants are descendants of those prisoners.

That's as far as our geography lesson goes. Now straight to the point. A couple of weeks ago, a massive gas explosion some 800 m deep in the Severnaya coal mine caused a collapse of the tunnels. 100 miners were trapped underground. 4 died on the spot, another 26 remained buried in the galleries. The Russian media only decided to report on the incident 24 hours later - something typical for the Russian propaganda machine. I personally wasted a lot of time until I could find more detailed info on the tragedy, and even it was scattered. Were any rescue efforts made immediately, that remains a mystery. What is known for sure is that three days after the explosion, the mine's management announced that the chances of the 26 miners were minimal. It was only then that the public learned of a few subsequent explosions, which the Russian medias had also stayed silent about. On day 4, a special announcement was made, stating that all rescue efforts had been terminated. The 26 miners were presumed dead. They had simply been written off.


The Komi minister of health care Dmitry Berezin said that there were 9 injured miners at the Vorkuta hospital. 2 were in a serious condition, 4 had medium injuries, 5 with mild injuries. That's what Gazeta.ru reported. Meanwhile, the website of the town administration informed that a church memorial service would be held, and everyone was invited. Not a word about those who still remained trapped underground at that very moment. Some announcements claimed they were 36, others said 26, and still others reported of much more, but one way or the other, the silence and opaqueness remained. RIA Novosty informed of 41 casualties, and a cessation of the rescue operation due to the bad conditions.

Well, this is Russia that we're talking about here, after all. Human life doesn't cost that much there, never has. In Russia, every such incident tends to be kept secret for the first 24 hours - enough time to "harmonize" the misinformation between the various institutions involved (and the media), and to create the appearance of conducting some sort of rescue operation - preferably a fake one (we don't want to waste too much resources and manpower, do we?) Just remember the tragedy with the Kursk U-boat and the information veil that continued for more than a week before it eventually transpired that all its personnel had practically been left to drown.

If we're to make a comparison with the normal countries, let's look at the 2010 incident at the San Jose mine in Chile. Again gas explosion, 33 miners trapped underground. Roughly the same depth like in Vorkuta. The Chileans immediately started rescue operations, they didn't spare a single peso to mitigate the miners' predicament. They even found a way to establish a tube line which they used to regularly drop air, food and water to the miners. They even made a video connection between them and their relatives on the ground. They worked tirelessly, they built equipment that eventually allowed them to rescue all 33 miners. For 69 days the whole country of Chile did everything in its powers to save its workers, and it succeeded - because that's what normal countries do, countries who truly value human life. Every single one. It's just that such countries have the technological and institutional culture to react adequately, and to put the cost of human life above all else.


Meanwhile, in Russia... An unknown number of miners (at least 26) were written off on day 2 of the tragedy, and even their closest relatives won't be able to say their goodbyes now. Many of them were probably descendants of the concentration camp prisoners who in 1953 had the courage to oppose the Bolshevik terror that had cast them to the end of the world. But none of that has ever mattered in Russia. You won't find anything on the matter in the official information websites and state media. All you'll find is the announcement that the mine will be brought back into operation in a few months. End of story.

Well, given this attitude to human life, there's NO WAY Russia could be considered a civilized country - European or not. No matter how much the paid Putinite trolls would try to convince us otherwise, no matter how much the Kremlin lackeys would praise Russia's power and prowess - there are certain standards of humanity that are virtually unknown around those latitudes, both at this side and beyond the polar circle.