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Yuri Kalinin, member of the Federation Council Committee on Budget, Regulations and Organization of Parliamentary Activity
We need new technologies, new alarming systems.
We need a new system of training citizens for such situations because people living in a risk area
cannot be fully protected from nature disasters.
They should be trained.
The system was destroyed.
However, in 1994 the Federal Law 68 On Protection of Population and Territories from Emergency Situations Appeared
due to Natural Cataclysms and Man-Caused Situations was adopted.
Everything is well written in the law – rules, duties of regional and municipal administrations,
issues which they have to deal with ahead of the situation, during the situation and after it.
Along with positive aspects we saw drawbacks, ignoring the law which obliged to settle this or that problem.
The law also requires certain duties for a citizen living in the territory:
that he has to be prepared, he has to be trained.
We should think about support of volunteers.
We should systematize and legally settle all rights and social relations appeared during volunteers work.
It is great that people come, but they should know clearly what they should expect, what right they have,
and what duties administrations which work with them have.
Moreover, security of a volunteer – health care insurance because a person is at risk to get injure
or get sick in the area of an emergency situation.
Such laws are adopted in Moldova, they are being developed in Tajikistan, Belarus, and are implemented in the world.
In many countries of Europe and the US when a person who participated in a volunteer movement want to employ,
he or she has greater chances.
At the same time, rascals always try to muscle in on such positive movements and use the situation in their own interests:
marauders, alarmists.
Right before our arrival there was an attempt to raise people
– somebody shouted that reservoir’s dams collapsed and the wave was coming, and everybody would die.
We stopped people applying great efforts.
Some people use the situation in political and criminal interests.
There must be criminal punishment for such behavior.
Today Criminal Code requires responsibility for fake messages on terrorism and terrorist attacks.
The 207th article of Criminal code should be added by responsibility for such alarmist statements.
Dmitry Aleshkovsky, coordinator of the collecting and sending center of humanitarian support in the Vorobyovy Hills
There is no complete statistics.
I know that a small group cleared 41 houses from wrecks in 3 days and provided 157 points with humanitarian support,
i.e. 157 families.
What was interesting in our work?
First of all, our support was separated from the Emergency Ministry’s help.
I mean it was parallel.
We directly helped victims.
Everyday we composed a new list of what we needed.
We received them from our volunteers who lived there.
Everyday when we gathered stuff, we posted information in Twitter, Facebook, and the mass media,
which helped us a lot, on what we needed.
Nobody remained indifferent.
We are an absolutely apolitical group.
We do not represent any political party.
I was asked: who stands behind you?
Nobody stands behind me.
We are you.
We are common people.
It was pleasure to see how Special Forces came to load our vans and guys with white stripes,
guys from Young Russia, bikers, Christian activists helped them…
These are people who cannot be united except for a common tragedy.
And it shows that people still have a chance to love, happiness, and mutual joy.
I cannot remember a situation when our society has been so consolidated.
It was one of the happiest days in my life, and not only mine.
As for the law on volunteers, I think this law is needless.
I don’t believe that some bureaucratic obstacles will help us, volunteers, to work.
We settle problems very quickly, and additional bureaucratic tasks we would have to fulfill
– reports, registration, contracts, and so on – will kill our work.
We couldn’t work because couldn’t send, for example, 100 people there who need insurance.
Yes, they come there at their own risk.
Yes, many of them are not vaccinated.
Yes, many of them could get sick.
But we cannot deal with their insurance here because we have no time for that, we have no money for that.
People understand perfectly all risks.
We cannot sign a contract with them because we have no lawyer.
We are people who collected money and other resources and sent a bus there without official documents,
and there were no problems with it because the police understood what business we did.
All these bureaucratic obstacles will disturb us only.
We need a structure that would coordinate the work of volunteers and the state.
It is a useful initiative because at the moment we see great discoordination.
Recently I have received a letter: “There are two tons of construction load.”
But I cannot send it.
I have phoned to various generals, and they don’t let us to send the load.
They can take it and store it, but they cannot make it work tomorrow, for example.
We need real-time coordination, just like our work.
Of course we understand how and where to give food, water, clothes, and similar things.
But ten tons of brick… We want the municipal administration to help us.
It is very important.