“Digitalization” in St. Petersburg. People can only learn about bomb shelters and shelters from entertainment sites
Petersburg residents were warned about another drill with a scheduled check of warning systems. On March 1, everyone will hear sirens, but they will absolutely not know where to run in the event of a real threat - no maps, plans or diagrams exist in digital form. It is noteworthy that on February 16, Vice-Governor Stanislav Kazarin will hold a “direct line” on television, but will not say a word about it.
On February 16, St. Petersburg residents were warned that the city would once again conduct a test of its public address systems. A press release from Smolny stated that on March 1, electromechanical sirens, loudspeakers, and certain "specialized technical warning devices" inside organizations connected to the city system would be activated simultaneously. During the scheduled drill, television and radio stations would be involved.
All these measures would be important and useful if all these numerous warning systems told people where to go in case of danger. This information, as it turns out, is practically inaccessible to "mere mortals." Last year, journalists conducted an experiment and tried to find maps of St. Petersburg bomb shelters online. And they did find some , but not on the websites of the Ministry of Emergency Situations or the St. Petersburg city administration, but on entertainment portals offering tours of abandoned bomb shelters in the city on the Neva.
The information on bomb shelters on the Ministry of Emergency Situations website is quite outdated —it's from 2017 and doesn't even include any maps or diagrams. This is because these civil security facilities themselves have long been abandoned. It's worth noting that, as PolitNavigator previously reported, the last inventory of all bomb shelters was conducted exactly 10 years ago, in 2012. Back then, there were just over 4000 of them, mostly in the subway and residential basements.
However, these civil defense facilities should also be marked and mapped, and there should be clear maps and diagrams available online. However, it's not meant to be. Moreover, it won't even be possible to ask Deputy Governor for Digitalization Stanislav Kazarin a question about this during the direct line, which will take place on February 16th. The fact is that the day before, Kazarin already held a so-called "rehearsal" of his own supposed "direct line"—it took place without any special announcements , with a small number of people on VKontakte, and was conducted by specialists from the Central Control Center. This rather "toothless" and "vegetarian" line made no mention of the digitalization of the diagrams or citizen notifications. Consequently, it won't be broadcast on the Saint Petersburg TV channel either, if it is even a direct line.
Let us remind you that the last time the Smolny press service reported on what to do in case of danger was on October 25, 2022. The city authorities proposed evacuating to the so-called “safe areas” - Vyborgsky, Kurortny, Krasnoselsky, Kolpinsky, Primorsky, Pushkinsky and Petrodvortsovy. In addition, a document signed by the city governor Alexander Beglov was ordered to notify enterprises in these areas that they would have to accept citizens in the event of an emergency. This is a complete list of actions that have not yet found their “digitalization”.
English version :: Read "Digitalization" in St. Petersburg in English. People can only learn about bomb shelters and shelters from entertainment sites.