Shortly before his death, the ex-head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Yevgeny Zinichev signed an order to liquidate the detachment. The Ministry of Emergency Situations wanted to transform it into another structure with the expansion of the staff. However, many of the squad’s employees were dismissed or left on their own, TASS reports
Rescuers of the “Centrospas” squad in Beirut
The acting head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Chupriyan, canceled the order of the previous head of the Ministry, Yevgeny Zinichev, on the liquidation of the advanced detachment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations “Centrospas”. This is reported by TASS with reference to a source in the squad, as well as REN TV with reference to several sources familiar with the situation.
“The acting minister signed an order to cancel the previous order on the liquidation of the Centrospas detachment,” the agency interlocutor said.
According to one of the sources of the TV channel, in the coming days there will be a meeting of the dismissed employees of “Centrospas” with the current leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, including Chupriyan and his deputies Viktor Yatsutsenko and Andrei Gurovich.
According to REN TV, on the eve of the meeting, the head of “Centrospas” Evgeny Linitsev went on vacation.
RBC sent a request to the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.
As reported by TASS in mid-August, referring to the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, by the end of 2021, the agency planned to reorganize the FGKU “State Central Airmobile Rescue Squad of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia “Centrospas”. The agency wrote that in the order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations signed by Zinichev (died in early September), it was said about the liquidation of the detachment andits transformation into the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Central Airmobile Rescue Squad of the EMERCOM of Russia”, which will include the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Southern Equestrian and Canine Rescue Center of the EMERCOM of Russia” as a structural unit with all functions and tasks. He also had to receive court obligations, debts and property of “Centrospas”, claimed TASS.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations then assured that the staff of the detachment would be expanded, and all current employees would retain their positions. Moreover, as stated in the department, new units will appear in the detachment and the range of tasks will be expanded. “Such innovations are due to the introduction and improvement of the system of international response standards and, in general, the system of response to federal and international emergencies, as well as the development of rescue technologies,” the Ministry of Emergency Situations explained.
However, according to TASS, many workers, including international-class rescuers, who worked in the “Centrospace” for decades, said they were fired. Another part of the employees wrote statements of their own volition, not agreeing with the changes being carried out in the squad. It was planned that the liquidation of the detachment would be completed by January 1, 2022.
The Centrospas detachment was founded in 1992 and became the first detachment of the State Committee for Emergency Situations, which was transformed into the Ministry of Emergency Situations in 1994. During this time, the forces of the detachment in Russia and abroad rescued about 11 thousand people, assisted more than 42 thousand victims. The squad includes an airmobile hospital, included in 2016 in the top three of the global register of emergency medical teams created by the World Health Organization.
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