Children security

Change.org Disputes 'How Was The Swim?' Official's Take On Petition To Oust Him

The popular online petition and campaign site Change.org says almost all of the 150,000-plus people who signed a petition demanding the resignation of the Kremlin's reportedly ill-fated children's rights ombudsman are based in Russia, despite Pavel Astakhov's dismissal of his online critics as American puppets.

The Change.org petition called on Astakhov to resign over a seemingly insensitive remark he made while visiting child survivors of a deadly boating accident at a camp near the Finnish border.

Irrespective of the Change.org campaign, the anti-Astakhov effort appeared to have gained traction within Russia, as RBC on June 30 quoted "a source close to the Duma leadership" as saying that Astakhov had already submitted his resignation and would soon be leaving his post.

A number of Russians had publicly pilloried Astakhov, including the spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee, who implied that the ombudsman's statement to the survivors was beyond "the norms of morality and ethics."

"So how was the swim?" Astakhov asked one of 37 survivors of a twin capsizing that killed 14 people, almost all of them child campers, when a storm struck their boating expedition on remote Lake Syamozero in the northern Karelia region on June 18 and the camp's staff inexplicably failed to seek outside assistance.