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Tens of thousands in several Russian cities are freezing because of defective heating systems. Anger at the authorities is growing.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich, listen to us and help us!” appeals a group of people in a video on the Russian online platform VKontakte. They report heaters that have been broken for months, temperatures of around five degrees in their bedrooms, and they show icicles that have formed on the inside of the windows.
“To avoid freezing to death, we do everything we can to generate a little heat,” says one woman. For example, turn on the oven and leave the oven door open. The people come from the Novosavidovsky settlement, not far from Moscow.
They are not the only ones in Russia who are freezing. According to Russian media, up to 100,000 people were affected by heating failures yesterday, and on Thursday numerous apartment blocks in the major cities of Saratov and Novosibirsk were affected.
Call for help to the Kremlin chief
Many residents have turned to the Kremlin with desperate messages. They criticize the inaction of local authorities and ask Putin to finally solve the problem. On Tuesday, the president reacted and ordered the Ministry of Emergency Management to help those affected.
Legend:
Icy temperatures on January 11, 2024 also in St. Petersburg. Temperatures of up to minus 30 degrees Celsius are not uncommon in the Russian winter.
Imago/Itar Tass/Sipa USA
It suits the Kremlin if it can show how the central government supports ordinary people who would be abandoned by incompetent local rulers. In fact, heating problems in certain regions appear to be linked to corruption in local government.
But the problem goes deeper. Corruption also exists at the highest levels in Russia. Government investments often serve to enrich the elite and their companies. This means that infrastructure is maintained in the power centers of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but not in the country’s impoverished provinces.
The image suffers
Since Putin has been pumping billions into the arms industry to gain the upper hand in Ukraine, there is even less money left for roads, hospitals or heating systems. This undermines the image that the Kremlin wants to convey to its people – especially in the months before the presidential elections.
An exhibition in Moscow is currently showing Russia’s regions as centers of technical progress. The images of high-tech laboratories and factories hardly match the reality of dilapidated pipes and power plants from the Soviet era.
Such local problems were once a main topic at Putin’s annual press conferences, where citizens address the president with requests. But at the last conference shortly before Christmas, the war and its consequences for the population took up all the space. The Kremlin probably considers it to be the most urgent construction site at the moment.
Different points of view
Putin’s message: Despite all the sanctions, Russia hardly feels anything about the war. During an appearance in Khabarovsk on Thursday, the Kremlin chief also emphasized that Russia is trying to be suffocated from all sides, and yet it is the strongest economy in Europe. Meanwhile, Novosavidovsky says: “We don’t fight, but we live like we lived in the blockade of Leningrad in the Second World War.”
The Kremlin originally launched its conquest against Ukraine, among other things, to distract from such home-made problems. This winter shows that even belligerence and patriotism cannot solve these problems.