Severe flooding hit Krasnodar Krai, killing more than 100 people, causing much damage in Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk, and Krymsky Raion. The authorities instituted a state of emergency in the flooded regions. President Putin instructed Governor Aleksandr Tkachyov of Krasnodar Krai, and the MChS and Minzdrav (Ministry of Health), to coordinate their efforts to normalise the situation in the inundated areas and give assistance to victims.
6 July 2012
RIA-Novosti
The Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS) said that, early on Saturday, a bus carrying Russian pilgrims crashed on the road between Chernigov and Kiev, killing at least fourteen and injuring 22 people. The bus was carrying 45 passengers from Pskov Oblast to the Pochaev Lavra in the Ukraine. According to preliminary data, the driver lost control of the vehicle; it ran off the road and flipped over. First responders took the injured Russian pilgrims to hospital in Chernigov; three of them are in critical condition. Russia will send two planes to take the victims of the crash back home.
The authorities in Pskov Oblast declared a three-day period of mourning starting on 9 July. This was after a bus carrying Russian pilgrims crashed in the Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least fourteen and injuring 22 people. In an official statement, a Pskov Oblast spokesman said, “We’ll lower flags to half-mast and cancel all entertainment events and light TV programmes for 9-11 July”.
On Sunday, an official MChS spokesman said that two MChS aircraft brought 25 Russian pilgrims injured in a bus crash in the Ukraine on Saturday to Moscow. Fourteen people were killed after a bus carrying 43 pilgrims from Pskov Oblast to the Pochaev Lavra in the Ukraine swerved off the road, crashing into a ditch. The MChS spokesman said that one of the planes, an Il-76, brought 14 people, who suffered serious injuries. Twenty ambulances met the plane, which immediately took the injured to various Moscow hospitals. The other plane, a Yak-42, carried 11 people with less-severe injuries and the bodies of those killed in the crash. Three more passengers from the crashed bus remain in ICUs of Ukrainian hospitals, as doctors prohibited their transportation due to the risk to their lives. One more passenger also remains in the Ukraine, to aid in the investigation into the crash. According to an investigator’s preliminary reports, the accident took place as the driver had fallen asleep, eventually causing him to lose control of the vehicle.
7/8 July 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20120707/174447995.html
I’ve received word that Herman and Yustinian, at this moment, are having a private confab. Herman didn’t serve at the liturgy this morning, but he was present in the church (my source wasn’t clear on whether or not he was in the altar). The pot’s simmering, kids…
BMD
Be prepared for all sorts of self-justifying crapola from the First Families later today. More and more, this appears to be a farcical Ruritanian coup, not a serious change of administration. The Centre hasn’t committed itself, yet…
There’s nothing surfacing on JP, yet. NOTHING. NOT A THING. SILENCE. Ergo, all the speculation should cease until we all get some more solid intel to go on. However, there’s been some reaction to Yustinian serving with Herman Swaiko:
I hope that you aren’t suggesting that Herman might be reinstated in Jonah’s place? In some ways, he might have been superior, I think the community in general would get whiplash trying to assimilate such a turn of events.
My reply was:
It means that the Centre is no longer publicly behind JP. As for anything else, my Russian contacts are just as flummoxed as anyone else is. There’s no news, that’s all one can say of the matter. Just sit tight…
My take, based on the information available at present, is that the move against JP is a First Family coup led by pukes such as Kishkovsky and Potapov. They saw JP dragging them under, so they launched a putsch. Whether this is Red October or the Beer Hall Putsch remains to be seen. It’s very poorly executed; the fact is that the putschists have no “narrative” in place to explain their seizure of power. Indeed, they’re acting like the loony August putschists in 1991… that led to the fall of the USSR. Shall this lead to the OCA‘s fall, as well? One can only hope…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
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