a state of emergency in the Russian far east

Yesterday a state of emergency was declared in parts of the Russian far east because of a lack of heating. Power companies are refusing to turn on supplies until regional councils pay outstanding fuel bills of millions of dollars. Nurseries have been closed and classes cancelled in many schools. The Russian news agency, RIA, cited by BBC, says residents in some areas the town of Artem and the Kavalerovskiy district yesterday blocked major roads to draw their plight to the attention of the federal authorities. Experts say that if the heating is not switched on within the next few days the systems could be disabled through freezing. Some boiler-rooms start working in self-preservation mode, but it’s still cold inside the houses. One of these days 600 tons of black oil will be brought to the region from Angarsk, but this will be enough only for a week, because the region has to settle accounts with neighbouring territories.