Den oberoende nyhetssajten Medusa (som regelbundet publicerar Putin-kritiska artiklar) har många intressanta artiklar och inlägg om branden i Kemerovo, bland annat en pedagogisk genomgång av varför det är sannolikt att myndigheternas uppgifter om antal döda är någorlunda med sanningen överensstämmande. Läs gärna hela sammanställningen på engelska här:
https://meduza.io/en/cards/they-say-...ire-is-it-true .
Ur artikeln:
Citat:
If you still suspect the Russian officials of hiding information about the death toll in Kemerovo, consider these points:
If 350-400 people died in Sunday’s fire, it’s unclear where all their friends and family members are. The number of people who have come forward about lost loved ones in Kemerovo doesn’t indicate such a high death toll.
In an age where nearly everyone has a smartphone and mobile Internet access, it would be enormously difficult to cover up the discovery and disposal of so many bodies. Consider the Russian military’s inability to conceal how it supplied a “Buk” missile to separatists in eastern Ukraine: civilians took photos and videos of the weapon at every turn, and happily uploaded the footage to the Internet.
Journalists from The Village examined testimony from eyewitnesses who fled the movie theater on the shopping mall’s fourth floor, including ticket sales records. They came to the conclusion that the official death toll appears to be accurate.
Citat:
If the authorities aren’t lying, then why is there so much information about “hundreds of dead”?
People’s distrust of the official death toll is most likely due to the fact that many Russians are suspicious of information provided by the government and by journalists. While conspiracy theories flourish all over the world, the Russian and Soviet authorities have a particularly nasty history of hiding domestic tragedies from their own people.
In the post-Soviet era, Russians remember the Beslan crisis (where officials said there were between 120 and 354 hostages, when there were actually more than 1,100) and the “Nord-Ost” siege (where the police to this day still won’t reveal what gas they used to incapacitate the terrorists and accidentally kill several hostages). When people believe they’re being lied to by state officials and the news media, “alternative information” can spread quickly.
