Today, Russia has started a nation-wide day of mourning for 64 victims of a fire in the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall in Kemerovo. Many cities organized the special cites for offering condolences and nationwide sorrow for the victims, most of whom were children. There are two such sites in Moscow - on Manezhnaya Square and Pushkin Square, but people are also bringing flowers to the building of the Kemerovo Region Administration under the government of the Russian Federation on Bolshaya Tatarskaya Street.
Today, representatives of the Azerbaijani community of Moscow held a mourning event there.
According to the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, the director of the Fund of Development and Revival of Azerbaijani Culture, Shamil Tagiyev, stressed that the representatives of the Azerbaijani community considered it their duty to honor the memory of the deceased. "Today, a nation-wide day of mourning was declared in Russia for people, for children who died for nothing. Not just here, but also in Azerbaijan, people honor their memory today. We hope that this will not happen again in Russia and in the world, because peaceful people should not die in peacetime due to negligence," he said.
"A lot of people died there, 64 people, inducing 41 children. We are very sorry that it happened. For two days people in Azerbaijan have come to the Russian embassy and honor the memory of those killed in this tragedy. The government must take measures. Such fires broken out in Moscow and other regions, and for us, for the entire Russian people, including Russian Azerbaijanis, fires have become not just extraordinary cases, but a national tragedy," Shamil Tagiyev drew attention.
"We hope that those responsible for these fires will be punished. We call upon all representatives of our diaspora not to yield to provocations, many of which have appeared on the internet recently. They are created by certain people who are trying to use the situation for their political purposes," the director of the Fund of Development and Revival of Azerbaijani Culture noted.
Nail Isayev, who works as assistant investigator in the Western Administrative Okrug of Moscow on a voluntary basis, said that the fire in Kemerovo was a tragedy for the whole country. "I hope that president Vladimir Putin and head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin will not leave this unpunished. The entire Russian People's Friendship University is mourning. This is a wound for all the people and the whole country. God, give patience to the families that suffered, the children, who were left without parents, and those who lost their children," the participant said.
Associate Professor at Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Oktay Huseynov also stressed that Russian Azeris mourn today with the whole Russian people and express condolences to the relatives and friends of the deceased. "It's a huge tragedy. If you look at the recent history, a lot of emergencies happen in shopping malls. The fact that it was impossible to open a spare entrance door shows the negligence of businessmen who are not capable of organizing fire safety. The Azerbaijani people condole with the families of the deceased. Azerbaijanis come to the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan and express their sorrow," he said.
