‘Civilians should not stay in Kazan in case of an emergency, they should be evacuated’

“Be vigilant!”

Leaflets appeared on the entrances of Kazan houses, the content of which makes us recall Soviet posters distributed 80 years ago — with a call to be vigilant. Modern “propaganda materials” differ from the laconic creations of Soviet agitators in verbosity, but given today's realities, this is probably not a minus, but a plus. It is much easier to navigate having at hand a detailed algorithm of actions for all occasions, as well as a list of phones that it is recommended to call in a given situation.

“Noticed a danger? Let us know!” the propaganda poster calls. “The vigilance of the population reduces the likelihood of terrorist attacks by an order of magnitude.” And “just in case” — in case, for example, you have to evacuate urgently from home — it is recommended that the whole family develop an action plan in advance, decide what to take with them (and put things in a bag, backpack, etc. in advance — in a kind of “alarm suitcase”, and also agree where to meet with loved ones if they lost each other in the turmoil — to determine a “spare meeting place”).

In light of the recent terrorist attacks and attempts, a warning is very relevant that it is dangerous to agree to the requests of strangers to transfer (take) a parcel to someone — you never know what kind of “surprise” it conceals. Also, there is a reason for a warning not to confide in strangers who ask about the location of defense facilities — these may be spies, whose suspicions should be immediately reported to law enforcement agencies.

Off the record

However, as Realnoe Vremya found out, the law enforcement agencies are not yet aware that citizens are so unequivocally aimed at cooperating with them. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazan says that the initiative with their distribution comes from the executive committee of the city and for them, the appearance of propaganda materials has become news.

In this regard, it is possible that the attempts of Kazan residents to report suspicious individuals to the police will end, as usual, with formal “response measures”. For example, Valentina M. told Realnoe Vremya how after calling the police about suspicious citizens calling apartments in her entrance, no one came to the house, but the district police officer demanded a few days later that she come to give explanations.

“As a result, I got a bureaucratic formal reply by mail a month later, when my goal was quite different — to protect gullible old neighbours from scammers," the woman said.

Leave a note on the door and go into hiding

As it turned out, the city Department of Civil Protection has nothing to do with these leaflets. But the ex-head of the Civil Protection Department, Ferdinand Timurkhanov, not only explained the meaning of the recommendations for the protection of the population in the event of an emergency, but also told our publication what has been done in this direction at the city level:

“Let's start with the bug-out bag, which should be taken with you to the shelter. Abroad, in Western countries, having such a bag is the norm, everyone has it. It should contain documents. A supply of water and food for one day — some canned food, necessary things for one day, which will have to be spent in a shelter. In case of an alarm signal, it is necessary to leave a note on the apartment door: “I, last name, first name, patronymic, am in the basement of house No. ...”. This is important — we need to know where to look for people later. It is also important, when going into hiding on an alarm signal, to turn off the water, light, gas and knock on the neighbours, make sure that they also heard this signal.

As for the “back-up meeting place”, Timurkhanov says, this is not quite relevant today:

According to the head of the city Department of Civil Protection, housing has already been booked to accommodate the evacuees in Atninsky, Arsky, Vysokogorsky, Zelenodolsk, Sabinsky, Baltasinsky and other districts of the republic.

“Everything will be told at the consultation point”

“In Kazan, a large-scale 'audit' of the basements of residential buildings has been carried out for the possibility of their equipment for shelters," Ferdinand Timurkhanov was reminded by Realnoe Vremya. “And from what you told, it follows that the population will use them only once in case of an emergency — before the general evacuation?

“We really checked all the basements of residential buildings, and out of 5,461 basements, only 2,637, subject to retrofitting, can be used to shelter the population. Retrofitting is the installation of benches or stools, bio toilets and gasoline electric generators. All this, taking into account the retrofitting of metro stations and parking lots for these purposes, according to our calculations, requires almost 1,4 billion rubles. Plus about 6 billion — for the installation of concrete floors, sealing windows and other construction work in future shelters. There is no money so far, we have equipped only one shelter at the expense of the management company — at Prospekt Pobedy, 126. As a model — to show what it should be.”

“But in case of an emergency, the main thing for people is not benches or toilets — it is important to survive…"

“That's what management companies are doing now. They visit every house, every apartment, explain which basement to go to if anything happens. In Novo-Savinovsky and Aviastroitelny districts, this work has already been completed — the basements are “distributed” there, the rest of the districts are catching up. Until July 1, educational and consulting points for the population will be opened in all districts of Kazan, where they will explain where to go, what to take with them. There will be many of them — one for every three thousand people.”