Putin pays last respects to late emergencies minister

Russian President Vladimir Putin today attended the final farewell ceremony for late Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev held in the building of the ministry’s National Crisis Management Center.

The official mourning ceremony, which started at 7:00 a.m., is divided into several parts. Colleagues, friends, and co-workers were able to pay their last respects from 09:00 to 10:30 a.m. Moscow Time.

The minister will be buried on the same day in Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg, where he was born. According to Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin does not plan to attend Zinichev's funeral.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Emergencies Ministry said that its Minister Yevgeny Zinichev, 55, died in the line of duty during drills in the Arctic city of Norilsk while saving a man’s life. Putin expressed his sincere condolences over the minister’s death and awarded him the Hero of Russia title posthumously.

Zinichev had worked in state security bodies since 1987. In late July 2016, he was appointed acting governor of the Kaliningrad Region. From October 2016 to May 2018, he served as deputy director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Zinichev had occupied the post of Russia’s Emergencies Minister since May 2018.