Tour company CEO arrested in St. Petersburg after several people drowned while touring Moscow’s underground tunnels during rainstorm
In St. Petersburg, the authorities have arrested Alexander Kim, the CEO of the tour company Sputnik, responsible for organizing an underground guided tour that led to several deaths in Moscow last weekend.
Telegram news channels 112 and Shot write that Kim tried to leave the country once placed on the authorities’ wanted list. He is now being transported to Moscow, where a court will consider whether to keep him in custody.
A number of participants, including three teenagers, drowned while touring Moscow’s underground tunnels on Sunday, August 20, during a heavy rainstorm. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case, suspecting that safety regulations had been disregarded by the tour operator.
According to different news outlets, five or six bodies have been recovered so far from the Moskva River and the connected water systems after the Sunday tour. Shot writes that another body was lifted from the river on Tuesday afternoon.
The detectives are saying that the tour company assured customers that the excursion was completely safe, while trespassing into the city’s underground water structures.
Three suspects have been identified, including the excursion coordinator Nikita Dubas, who was summoned for questioning on Monday. According to the news channel Baza, another suspect, the CEO of the Avangard tour company Alexander Lazovsky, left the country shortly after the tour group’s disappearance on Sunday.
