Moscow-Russia’s emergency minister Yevgeny Zinichev died during training in the Arctic on Wednesday, the RIA news agency quoted the ministry’s statement.
According to the RIA, 55-year-old Zinichev, who has led the prominent Ministry of Emergency Situations since 2018, died saving someone’s life.
“… Zinichev died tragically while performing public affairs during inter-departmental training to prevent a crisis in the Arctic and save someone’s life,” RIA said.
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia’s RT television channel, said Zinichev was standing on the shelf with a cameraman who slipped and fell into the water.
“There were quite a few witnesses. I didn’t even have time to think about what happened when Zinichev threw himself into the water for the fallen and crashed into a protruding rock,” she wrote on Twitter. rice field.
The cameraman also died, Simon Yang added.
Zinichev was in the Arctic Circle to oversee large-scale training and visited the construction site of Norilsk’s new fire department and a search and rescue team in the area, the ministry said in a statement early Wednesday.
Prior to becoming Minister, Zinichev held many positions, including serving as Deputy Director of the United States Marshals Service and Acting Agent for Kaliningrad.
According to Russian media, he was previously the bodyguard and personal assistant of President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian news agency that Putin had expressed his condolences.
