Chechen rebels claimed responsibility yesterday for a Siberian dam disaster as part of a new “economic war” against Russia but the Kremlin dismissed the claim and financial markets ignored it.
The claims posted on the unofficial Islamist rebel website www.kavkazcenter.com contradicted experts and officials, who said dilapidated Soviet-era infrastructure was to blame for a water surge at Russia’s biggest hydro-electric dam on Monday that killed up to 75 people.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin visited the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam in southern Siberia yesterday, inspecting the damage, speaking to rescue workers and consoling relatives.
“We will replace the iron but we will never replace the people,” Mr Putin, dressed in a black suit and showing uncharacteristic emotion, told a news conference.
“One cannot even remember when we had an accident on this scale.”
Mr Putin also gave the clearest official signal so far that the 49 people still missing should be presumed dead, ordering payments of one million roubles per person (€22,000) to be paid for the missing and the dead.
One worker, standing near the pool of sludge that now fills the massive hole in the engine room, said he was on duty when a tower of water ripped through the floor.
“I’m a grown man, but for me it was totally frightening. Thirteen of my friends were in there,” he said, declining to give his name as he was not authorised to speak to the press.
Mr Putin and other senior officials did not comment on the rebel claims of responsibility for the disaster, which were also ignored by Russia’s state-controlled media.
But a recent wave of Islamist-inspired violence continued in the country’s mainly Muslim north Caucasus.
On Monday the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam was crippled by a surge of water through the machine room, destroying three of the dam’s 10 huge turbines and drowning dozens of workers.
A few hours later a truck bomb exploded at a police headquarters in the southern republic of Ingushetia, killing at least 20 people.