Putin promises payouts for Russia plant victims

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the site of the Siberia power plant accident Friday, acknowledging that there's little chance of finding any of 49 still missing workers alive and promising compensation for their families.

Putin urged the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant's owner RusHydro, which has pledged to pay out 1 million rubles ($31,300) to the families of the 26 already confirmed dead, to make the same payments for the families of those still missing.

"We can see what's happened — let's not pretend that someone doesn't know something," he told officials in televised remarks after touring the hydroelectric plant, where a powerful explosion Monday blew out walls and caused the turbine room at Russia's largest power plant to flood.

Putin promised to match the company's payouts with federal money to help families affected by the "huge tragedy."

The Emergency Situation Ministry said Friday that confirmed death toll had reached 26, after several more bodies were discovered overnight in the destroyed turbine room.

"I've just talked to the rescue workers. They have seen it all but say that nerves fail them (here)," Putin said.

More than 1,000 workers were searching the huge plant, although there is little hope anyone could still be alive after four days in near-freezing waters.

The cause of the accident is unclear but officials cited a faulty turbine and a rise of pressure in the pipes as possible triggers.

The Sayano-Shushenskaya plant supplies about 10 percent of Siberia's energy needs. It has been shut down since the accident and could be out of service for a significant time. Repairs are estimated to take from two to four years.

Putin said Thursday that the accident highlighted the need for upgrading critical parts of Russia's aging infrastructure. He also emphasized the necessity of observing industrial safety standards. "In our country ... discipline in dealing with technology is very low," he said.

Siberian electricity prices at local stock markets skyrocketed in the wake of the accident. Putin warned about "an inevitable increase" but also suggested that the government start to regulate wholesale electricity prices to manage the hike. He pledged the measure would likely be temporary.

Russian bloggers and some newspaper columnists have harshly scrutinized the disaster and the rescue efforts, touching a nerve with some local and federal officials unused to such criticism.

The country's top emergency response official, Sergei Shoigu, lashed out at bloggers, saying they were spreading panic and misinformation. "These guys need to be punished severely," he told the government newspaper Rossisskaya Gazeta in an interview published Thursday.

Regional prosecutors already have confiscated the computer, mobile phone and apartment key for a local blogger named Mikhail Afanasyev, accusing him of slandering officials and rescuers.