Walking in a minefield
23 August at the Ashuluk training ground in the Astrakhan region detonated ammunition. As a result of the incident, six soldiers were killed. 12 man injured. According to police, the explosion thundered during the disposal of ammunition. The situation at the site is not unique - ammunition exploded military depots with suspicious regularity. In early June, a similar incident occurred in Udmurtia. The fire and the ensuing explosions took place at the arsenal in the village of Pugachevo. The incident killed one person, and the number of injured exceeded 100 people. More than 3 thousand buildings were damaged, and the damage from the accident exceeded 2 billion rubles. And just on the eve of May, 26, near the village of Urman, that in Bashkiria, a fire also appeared on the territory of the artillery arsenal, provoking the detonation of 120-mm artillery ammunition. Then 12 people were injured, 3 of them were hospitalized. In Urman, 40 buildings burnt out, of which 14 houses, thus, more than 100 people were left homeless. Material damage exceeded 100 million rubles.
This is only very recent. story. Old ammunition has been torn in Russia for decades, and no lessons are learned from it, and no serious measures are being taken to prevent such incidents.
For example, in 1992, about 1800 were removed from the territory of Mongolia by Russian troops tanks and 1,5 thousand artillery pieces and systems. Ammunition was not taken far from the border. They were stored near the village of Gusinoe Ozero of the Selenginsky district of Buryatia. After 9 years, in 2001, a ball lightning was drawn into a warehouse in a draft. Naturally, a fire began and a real doomsday: ammunition scattered into small and large fragments in a radius of up to ten kilometers. Then several people lost their lives and health.
Immediately after the tragedy, the authorities promised to dismantle the hellish arsenal. But they, as often happens, did not keep their word. In the area of Goose Lake explosions continue to this day! All because of the copper "belts" of ammunition that local residents are trying to extract from the ground with the aim of handing over to the points of reception of the metal. The number of victims is striking: during 10 years, 74 people died, including 12 children. Particularly distressing is that in the village they live, mostly unemployed, who simply have nothing to earn for living, and that’s what people have to do to collect a deadly harvest. Collecting ammunition is a tempting business: a bucket of ammunition at the reception center costs 5 thousand rubles.
As the scientists of the Buryat Nature Management Institute say, the goose field of the land, for about 50 years, will continue to supply the remnants of ammunition from its unit. In addition, ammunition located in the ground and in the lake is very fragile and cannot be transported. They can only be disposed of on site.
In Russia, arsenals with ammunition explode just endlessly. And this happens, as a rule, on the eve of any revisions. We must assume that by undermining the arsenals the usual theft is hidden. The causes of fires and explosions are usually the same: a non-extinguished cigarette or a lightning strike. Let's hope that the next lightning does not cater to one of the largest ammunition depots in Russia, located not far from Ulan-Ude, near the village of Taltsy, where the order of 17000 cars with old ammunition is located.
After the tragedy of 2001, the administration of the Republic of Buryatia finally began to pay attention to the issue of cleaning Goose Lake and the surrounding areas from ammunition. Before 2008 400 million rubles were allocated for recycling. However, these tools have completely disappeared. The arsenals, of course, did not reach a penny. The then President of Buryatia L.Potapov postponed the cleanup of the disaster area for an indefinite period. And attempts to protect the territory and organize its protection ended in nothing.
In 2010 V.Nagovitsyn, the current president of Buryatia, convinced V.Putin to allocate 283 million rubles for demining the territory. Part of the money was waiting for 2011 in the spring of the year, even a competition was announced for land reclamation. However, the auction was unexpectedly canceled. Money is gone again in an unknown place! Complaints to the State Duma and the Prosecutor General’s Office remained unanswered.
It is curious that the army’s warehouses continue to explode despite the fact that in the Bashkir city of Sterlitamak a huge Avangard factory specializing in the disposal of ammunition has been idle for a long time. The plant is capable of recycling up to 120 thousand tons of shells per month. Instead, the plant has existed for several years only due to random orders. The company's specialists have learned not only to dispose of ammunition, but also to create peaceful products from them. From the hulls of missiles "Hurricane" can make excellent fences.
A paradoxical situation has developed in the country: in the presence of huge deposits of ammunition for recycling, a factory capable of performing its direct functions around the clock sends workers on holidays without maintenance!
A possible explanation for this situation may be the fact that in the near future, military arsenals will be transformed into a joint stock company. This was reported even by the Minister of Defense A. Serdyukov.
Privatization of arsenals may be one of the most irresponsible decisions in the history of the army. The storage and disposal of ammunition should only be done by competent people under the strictest supervision of specialists from the Ministry of Defense, the FSB and the Ministry of Emergencies, ”said the former commander of the Black Sea fleet Vladimir Komoedov.
Scientists put forward such a proposal: by attracting capital from large entrepreneurs interested in expanding their business in Gusinoye Ozero, a foundry and rolling production can be organized that can produce more than 100 thousand tons of metal annually. At first, to facilitate the task of the initial organization of production, you can use the shells and the remains of military equipment. In the future, scrap metal imported from neighboring regions, as well as from the territory of neighboring Mongolia, can become a raw material for production.
However, the reality is that the federal authorities continue to ignore the proposals of economists, businessmen and military specialists, so, unfortunately, it is not long to wait for new fireworks.
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