Russians are hunkering down in houses with broken heating and Putin doesn't seem to care

For two weeks now, residents of the Podolsk suburb of Moscow have been living without heating. In many apartments in the Klimovsk region, the radiators are not working, despite the low temperatures, which drop below 20 degrees below zero at night.

Just after New Years, as reported by DW, the local district heating unit was damaged, but the local government remained inactive for days. As a result of the oliguria, the pipes froze and broke. Mobilization on the part of the Russian authorities was only when residents started voicing complaints on social media and the first demonstrations were organized.

Reacting, the Russian authorities they proceeded to arrest the head of the region's military equipment production plant, the head of the power plant and the deputy mayor of Podolsk. The Russian president Vladimir Putin he proceeded, in fact, to nationalize the military equipment production factory. It should be noted that, according to a report in the newspaper Novyje Isvestija, the head of the energy plant had warned about the problems in the infrastructure and refused to guarantee with his signature the winter operation of the plant. However, he is still being held. Before the presidential elections in March, scapegoats are being sought.

Putin is aiming for a fifth re-election

Unfortunately, Podolsk is not an isolated case. All over Russia, from Kaliningrad in the west to the Novosibirsk in the east, hundreds of villages and tens of thousands of citizens face problems with broken district heating pipes or due to the absence of hot water, due to damage to the equipment of power plants. The collapse of district heating infrastructure is now affecting 43 Russian regions, as reported by the independent web portal 7×7. In other words, every second administrative region of the country has heating problems.

The discontent of the people intensifies month by month. Television footage or photos of protesting citizens hurt President Putin's image, especially now in the final stretch of the Russian presidential election.

THE Vladimir Putin he is seeking re-election as president for a fifth term in March. In addition to promises for a strong Russia, President Putin was elected almost 25 years ago on the slogan of “more stability”. He does not tire of repeating in his speeches that he managed to restore order in Russia after the chaos, crime and poverty that the country had slipped into in the 90s. The crumbling infrastructure in many parts of the country tarnishes the image of the Kremlin leader.

The war in Ukraine leaves no room for other spending

The large increase in military spending due to the war in Ukraine does not appear to leave much financial room for the Kremlin to maintain infrastructure in the coming years. The opposite actually happens. It plans to cut costs by around 50% by 2026.

However, for his part, President Putin does not seem to be interested in infrastructure problems.

Anyone who expected to address this burning issue last Tuesday at the meeting with local government representatives was disappointed. Once again, the head of the Kremlin focused on the war in Ukraine, appeared confident of victory and announced that the conquered territories will never be returned.

For a while Vladimir Putin gave his countrymen the illusion that he sympathized with them. Two weeks ago he flew unannounced into the Chukotka region of the Arctic Circle. According to political scientist Aba Galyamov, the president's goal was possibly to show the citizens that he is close to them in a region affected by low temperatures. But all the president did was visit a greenhouse tomato farm in the Arctic. Something that probably leaves most Russians indifferent in the midst of another heavy winter.