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Kremlin not responsible for stations transmitting radiation signals — spokesman

The presidential press secretary stressed that Vladimir Putin is being updated on the new developments following the blast
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov  Mikhail Metzel/TASS
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is receiving all the information after the emergency that took place at a missile test site near Severodvinsk, but the Kremlin is not responsible in any way for the station transmitting signals about radiation levels, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"As for the stations' operation, I honestly don’t know who is responsible for them. You will handily find who is responsible for them and request information why certain information is transmitted or not," he said, commenting on the reports that four such stations began transmitting data on the radiation levels following the emergency. "But the head of state is naturally receiving all the information about what’s happening there."

Peskov urged journalists to be guided by Putin’s statement, assuring that there is no danger and that the authorities are working to ensure that there is not even the slightest of threats to Russian citizens.

Commenting on the reports that employees of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization’s preparatory commission made a simulated model of the noble radioactive gases’ supposed trajectory of spreading following an emergency near Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Region, Peskov said that the ‘map of how the radioactive cloud could be spreading following the accident’ wording "is rather absurd."

"Speaking about the stations’ work, I reiterate that they are not within our jurisdiction and I cannot tell you anything here. I do not know what these stations are and whether they transmit [signals] and if they should or shouldn’t do so," he stated.

The accident occurred at a military testing range near Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk Region on August 8. The Russian Defense Ministry initially reported that two people died in the accident involving a liquid-fuel jet engine. Later regional authorities said that six more people had been hospitalized after the accident. On August 10, Rosatom said that five employees were killed in the accident and three more were hospitalized.