Putin said farewell to the deceased Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev

The cortege of the head of state has already left the building. The farewell ceremony for the minister itself has ended. Now the body of the minister will be delivered to St. Petersburg by a special board of the Ministry of Emergencies. Yevgeny Zinichev will be buried in the Northern Cemetery next to his parents.

Earlier, the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the president did not plan to participate in the funeral itself. Deputy Prime Ministers Andrei Belousov and Alexander Novak, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Head of the Russian Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev and other high-ranking officials also attended the farewell ceremony.

Recall that Yevgeny Zinichev perished September 8, saving the life of film director Alexander Melnik . The minister, together with the film crew, was in the Putoransky Nature Reserve, 120 kilometers from Norilsk. The film crew was choosing the location for filming a new documentary about the development of the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route, when 63-year-old cameraman Alexander Melnik slipped while standing on a cliff and flew down. Without delay, Zinichev jumped followed him to try to save him, but the minister hit a protruding stone and died. The filmmaker also failed to survive.

Zinichev headed the ministry since May 2018. By presidential decree, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia.