Page 9 - RusRPTFeb24

2.0 Politics
2.1 Russia freezing as utilities collapse in midst of cold snap
Even by Russian standards, it’s a particularly bleak midwinter, with unusually low temperatures sending the mercury below -30°C in places. Across many Russian regions, creaking utility networks have seen central heating systems fail, leaving tens of thousands of people without heating or hot water supply to their homes. Seeing that local authorities cannot cope with the problems, the Kremlin has started intervening directly, BMB Russia reports.
The first pipeline breakdowns and power cuts started in late December, hitting Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk. In January, the issue spread further. Parts of the Moscow region were left without heating, as were the Yaroslavl and Leningrad regions, and the cities of Ryazan and Voronezh.
The worst situation was in Klimovsk, just 50 kilometers from Moscow. On the night of Jan. 3-4, a fractured pipe triggered an emergency shutdown from the boiler house of the Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant to the city’s heating grid. (It’s not unusual for towns across the former Soviet Union to get their heating from a military enterprise that otherwise has no connection to public service companies or heating providers.) As a result of the shutdown, 176 residential buildings with more than 20,000 inhabitants were left without heat. Residents were simply urged to wrap up warm and forced to use cold water at home, while outside the temperature dropped below -20°C. By Jan. 10, some 30 buildings were still without heat.
Klimovsk’s problems attracted Vladimir Putin’s attention. He ordered Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, to nationalize the boiler station. Since two of the owners live abroad, the local authorities have every right to take charge in an emergency situation, Vorobyov said, justifying the decision.
The collapse of heating and water systems is due to overwhelming wear-and-tear on Russia’s municipal infrastructure. In many parts of the country, old steel pipes installed in the 1960-80s are still in use. They were originally set to last just 25 years. Across the country, 44.2% of utility infrastructure has already passed its life expectancy and the rate of modernization and replacements is slowing every year, according to figures from the state statistics agency Rosstat. Around an extra 3% of the heating, water and sanitation network is defined as being in an “emergency” state on an annual basis, but no more than 1-2% of the network is being updated, according to official figures. This leads to an average of 6,600 outages per month across the country.
It would cost 2.2 trillion rubles ($194 billion) to completely renew Russia’s local housing and communal infrastructure, the authorities say. In 2023, just 30 billion rubles ($2.6 billion) was spent from the state budget on the problem. Moscow’s budget shortfall caused by the war in Ukraine and resulting Western sanctions is further restricting the funds that can be invested into local
9 RUSSIA Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com