Across Russia, creaking infrastructure and a wave of accidents have plunged households into the cold in the depth of winter, fueling rare showings of public frustration.
Two electric radiators were not enough to keep Russian pensioner Elena Grezkaya-Silko from shivering in her one-bedroom apartment.
After two major utility network accidents last month, she struggled to stay warm at home in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, where temperatures regularly dip below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit in January.
After the first accident Jan. 11, due to what authorities said was a defect in the main heating network, the heating batteries inside her apartment went cold, with only lukewarm and intermittent heating in her bathroom and kitchen. Then, a hot water pipe burst on the street near her building Jan. 17, sending a geyser of hot water and steam into the air.
Her bedroom remained “icy cold” after that, she told NBC News in a phone interview last month.
-4 F = -20 Celsius.
I assumed they meant C not F in the summary. Yea that’s actually cold.
Yes, -4 was very random.
Not really. It sounds random, but the author of the article probably translated it from Celsius to begin with.
I know, that’s what’s why it sounded random. -20C is rounded number. So 0F or -5F or -10F could be better.
I recommend everyone who hasn’t to look up the idea of “Potiomkin villages” (and subsequently Potiomkin anything eg. Potiomkin AI). In short: back in the tzarist days lower ranks put up mock villages which looked clean, modern and prosperous for higher ranks (and tzars) to see during visits. These mockups were essentially theatre decorations which hid the real state of the matters - dilapidated, dirty, poor and corrupt. For at least the last decade everything we saw of Russia was Potiomkin in nature - either to show off before the West or to hide corruption before own superiors.
Potiomkin villages” (and subsequently Potiomkin anything eg. Potiomkin AI).
Potemkin village:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village
Apparently the original story is largely a myth:
… the tale of elaborate, fake settlements, with glowing fires designed to comfort the monarch and her entourage as they surveyed the barren territory at night, is largely fictional. … “Based on the above said we must conclude that the myth of ‘Potemkin villages’ is exactly a myth, and not an established fact.” … The close relationship between Potemkin and the empress could have made it difficult for him to deceive her. Thus, if there were deception, it would have been mainly directed towards the foreign ambassadors accompanying the imperial party … it is possible that the phrase cannot be applied accurately to its own original historical inspiration. According to some historians, some of the buildings were real, and others were constructed to show what the region would look like in the near future, and at least Catherine and possibly also her foreign visitors knew which were which.
I understand that people here want to believe that, but this is simply false. The standard of living rose significantly (probably several times) from the lowest point in nineteen nineties. This partially explains unwillingness of Russians to cardinally change their government. They still remember what happened last time.
Both are true. The standard of living did improve. But it was so abysmal, that even after the improvement only very few parts of Russia can compare to the rest of Eastern Europe, not to mention anything richer.
Income per person or family in Russia, especially in western part of Russia is high. The GDP per capita is not that much lower than in Eastern Europe, and in places like Moscow is probably higher. But that’s kind of irrelevant for Russians. They lived through the nineties, and that’s what they compare against - they did not live in Poland.
The Soviets also used this.
That was sorta inverted as there was InTourist, an organization that took charge of following tourists and delegations to bar them from visiting random places and taking a clue of what they shouldn’t see or hear, say guiding them through the best places of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Something that’s probably still present in NK and to a lesser extent China. It was also used for internal propaganda as Pravda printed their surprised comments.
To those not familiar with Flaffenfeit here on World News:
4 Flaffenfeit is about -3 ounces or 2 feet AFAIK.How many school busses and football fields does that equate to?
My truck gets ¹/₂₄₀ Manhattan per Single Tear Of Patriotic Pride Shed As I Salute The Crippled Veteran Panhandling Outside The Gun Store and that’s how I want it.
Not sure the person who says that kind of thing would use Manhattan.
As long as it doesn’t correlate, there’s a chance it’s right.😋
I don’t see the word “Flaffenfeit” written anywhere, it doesn’t even show up in search engine searches of the term. Is it a unit of volume, weight, or distance? Or am I whooshing on a joke?
Yeah it’s a joke - fahrenheit is what they’re making fun of, probably especially because it would be more appropriate to use celsius in the context of “world news”.
Flaffenfeit is a spoof unit that makes little sense as either length, weight, temperature or energy, like Imperial.
Unlike metric where 1cm3 of water is 1g and take 1 calorie to heat 1°C. And water freezes at 0°C and boils at 100. With metric I can convert easily in my head, for instance adding 2dl water to 200g of flour, can be easily done on the weight without needing a measurement cup. Likewise calculating between inch, yard, mile is not easy. Where cm, meter and km is as easy as pie.
General Winter has not only turned on the Russian army, it’s now going after Russian civilians. Top 10 all-time anime betrayals.
They should try burning their government for warmth.
They did couple of times in the past. But the place is cursed.
Crazy that their district heating system is such a mess. District heating works perfectly here in Sweden. Much more efficient than single-building boilers, too.
You don’t have people actively stealing state ordered funds and using them to have orgies on massive $500 million dollar yachts?
Typical western elitist thought.
Russian system superior because of orgies.
/s in case
Here some of the heat that’s left after heating homes is used to warm the city streets. -24° today, but still liquid water on the street.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After two major utility network accidents last month, she struggled to stay warm at home in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, where temperatures regularly dip below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit in January.
But her freezing frustrations are far from unique: Across Russia, creaking infrastructure and a wave of accidents have plunged households into the cold in the depth of winter, fueling rare showings of anger and irritation in a country where public criticism has been increasingly quashed.
Throughout late December and early January, Russian media was awash with coverage of accidents involving the country’s sprawling utility networks, which consist of heating and hot water mains.
Numerous videos shared online in late December and January showed boiling hot water and rolls of steam escaping burst pipes inside people’s homes and apartment buildings.
According to Russia’s Construction and Communal Services Ministry, there are plans to invest at least 4.5 trillion rubles (more than $49 billion) in modernizing utility infrastructure up to 2030, but the reality on the ground means the number of accidents continues to grow.
Still, the Kremlin would have preferred to avoid any hints of internal dissent less than two months before the election, especially when it could raise questions about government spending priorities amid the colossal costs of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The original article contains 1,218 words, the summary contains 213 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Fuck russia.
I really didn’t want to learn about Putin’s “aging pipes”, but I now see I misunderstood the headline.
