Mine blast in Russia highlights unsafe conditions

Sputnik via AP/Vladimir Yurlov

Relatives of miners gather in Vorkuta, Russia, Feb. 28, where 36 workers died at the Severnaya coal mine in the country’s deadliest mine disaster since 2010. Four were killed and 26 trapped Feb. 25 by two methane explosions. Six rescue workers died in a third blast Feb. 28. Authorities said the remaining miners, trapped in an area where a large fire continues to rage, are presumed dead.

Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich declared Feb. 29 that “an abrupt outburst” of methane made the disaster “almost impossible to prevent.”

But miners’ relatives dispute this story. Since February, “the guys were telling me there was a lot of gas,” Mikhail Momot, who had worked in the mine, told Agence France-Presse. The bosses say “if you don’t want to work you can quit. But where could I go?” His brother Konstantin died in the disaster.

Darya Tryasukho told Dojd TV that her father, also killed in the blast, said mine managers had ordered workers to disable methane detectors.

Alexander Sergeyev, head of the Independent Trade Union of Russian Miners, accused the company of skimping on safety measures to save money.

The Arctic city of Vorkuta and its coal mines were part of the Stalinist gulag. Hundreds of thousands of political prisoners were worked to death there from 1931-57. It was the site of a mass hunger strike in 1936 and prison labor strike in 1953. The mine was privatized after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

— NAOMI CRAINE