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Criminal Case Opened Against St. Petersburg Children's Camp Director

Investigators have opened a criminal case against Dmitry Marchenko, a children's camp director in St. Petersburg, the local branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee said in statement Tuesday.

The director of the Severnaya Zorka Plus children's camp is suspected of providing services that do not meet safety requirements.

According to the statement, the investigation has been opened following checks by consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor and the Emergency Situations Ministry revealed violations of sanitary standards and fire safety rules in the camp in June.

Inspections of children's camps in Russia began in earnest after 14 children died in a boating accident at the Samozero summer camp in Russia's northern republic of Karelia on June 18.  

A group of 47 children and four instructors were on a rafting trip on the lake when a storm overturned their boats.

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