Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Thursday called for checks on all
Russia's major infrastructure after an accident at the country's
largest hydroelectric plant that left 17 dead and 58 missing.
His comments at a government meeting in Moscow came as
concern mounted that the authorities have yet to pinpoint the cause of
the flood that engulfed the turbine room at the Sayano-Shushenskaya
hydroelectric plant Monday.
"There is a need to conduct serious inspections of all
strategic and vitally important objects of infrastructure," Putin said
at the meeting in Moscow.
"The recent tragic events at the Sayano-Shushenskaya
hydroelectric plant showed with all clarity how much more we should do
to increase reliability of technical constructions on the whole and
hydrotechnical ones in particular," he said.
"Technological discipline is very low," Putin said in televised remarks.
The death toll from the catastrophic flood that engulfed
Russia's biggest hydroelectric power station rose to 17 Thursday but 58
people were still reported missing, officials said.
Work started early Thursday to drain the turbine hall which
was flooded by a massive surge of water in Monday's disaster in a final
effort to find survivors who could still be in air pockets amid the
flooded wreckage.
Meanwhile, the actual cause of the flood that swamped the
turbine hall at a time when around 100 people were working inside
remains uncertain, with officials saying it is too early to draw
conclusions.
Terrorism however has been ruled out as a cause of the disaster.