Russia needs its money for the war: no money for heating worries

In several Russian regions, the dilapidated infrastructure causes problems in winter. Russian politicians should demonstrate tough action. Shortly before Putin's confirmation in office, the Kremlin has no use for unrest.

Zfor example Podolsk. “We’re freezing – that’s not the right word. We're freezing to death,” says an older woman wearing a hat and winter jacket who, together with her neighbors, is videotaping an appeal for help in the hallway of her home in the city on the outskirts of Moscow. The temperatures in the apartments are eleven or twelve degrees, in her own apartment only six, she says.

In Podolsk, after a pipe burst in a thermal power plant on January 4th, more than 170 houses and a hospital, with a total of around 20,000 residents, were without heating and with temperatures in the double-digit range below zero. Podolsk was not an isolated case in the area around Russia's capital, and since the beginning of the year, Vladivostok in Russia's Far East and Novosibirsk in Siberia, for example, have been affected by heating failures, where hot water pipes burst. This had already happened in the western exclave of Kaliningrad in mid-December.