Posted on 01/13/2024 5:26:07 AM PST by marcusmaximus
In Siberia's Novosibirsk, Russia's third-largest city, a major hot-water main burst, sending cascades of steaming water rushing through frozen streets and cutting off heating to scores of buildings -- and thousands of people -- amid Arctic temperatures.
In the Pacific port of Vladivostok, some 3,000 people were left in the bitter cold after an above-ground heating pipeline ruptured, spewing similar volumes of steaming water.
And nine hours to the west, in a string of Moscow suburbs, more than 150,000 people shivered -- and complained vociferously -- when another municipal heating pipe broke down, with engineers rushing to dig up the frozen ground.
Since January 1, amid a two-week period spanning various holidays, a growing number of towns and cities have reported major problems with heat and hot water.
Russia's winters are cold. This is not news. Russia's municipal infrastructure, much of which is Soviet-era and sporadically maintained, is aging. This is not news.
-snip-
A much-reviled legacy of Soviet central planning, heating and hot water are provided to the vast majority of Russian residences around the nation from municipal heating plants through a network of pipes that frequently rupture and need constant repair.
On January 9, after days of mounting complaints in the Moscow region district of Podolsk and videos of ice-encrusted radiators and gas cooking stoves turned on full blast circulating on social media, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke out, blaming "anomalous" cold for the exploding pipes, but also pointed to the aging infrastructure.
"Of course, despite titanic efforts to update all housing and communal-services systems, some of them remain in a rather dilapidated state," Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. "These programs will continue. But it is impossible to update all pipes and all housing and communal services systems in 10 or 15 years."
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
Per my standard criteria for information, this guy’s channel is at least 3 years old. So before the war that would generate propaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u3bK1xtSk_4
Seeing videos has a specific methodology. Ignore all talk. Just look in the background to see what life looks like.
St Petersburg. I see no flooded streets or broken pipes. They may exist, but not in the videos of 3 yr old channels.
“Soviet Union no longer exists except to weasels like democrats, RINOs and the Zeepers.”
Sure seems like a bunch of Ruzzians are acting like the Soviet Union isn’t gone. I take it they’re all weasels, right? In this much I agree with you.
Zakhar Prilepin says Russia should annex more former Soviet territories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgUZSsoT5Q0
Russian pioneer camp “Ahead to the USSR”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsA9CGq7xjs
State TV pundits say the Russian empire is expanding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4IYBrwdaRo
Russian soldiers sing about their mission in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNPW230hbP4
Yevgeny Balitsky says Russia will conquer more countries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwqHP5K9EtM
Propagandist explains Russia is restoring its empire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqENT7ey0_M
You bring up an interesting dynamic: War involving Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The former is shia, and the latter two are sunni (though both have minority shia populations). Iran is pissing off a lot of people lately; perhaps it is on the verge of building its first nuclear weapon, and is feeling its oats. Or, perhaps it is just being Iran, the bothersome and annoying kid on the block who gets along with no one.
You’re absolutely correct. I don’t care if they want to post their little Ukraine stories from questionable sources, but there are just so many of them clogging FR.
For example, it feels like we’re getting updates on Russian egg prices hourly. We didn’t have nearly this amount of stories when U.S. egg prices skyrocketed last year. We’ve got these obsessive little weirdos doing everything they can to dominate this American site with their garbage.
They’re not interested in rational discussions.
They want control.
I approve that map! It would be a fair return to normalcy. :)
The Krelinsts are impostors organized as a gang. They treat anything outside their circle of political friends as enemies, and that includes the Russian people.
In this nonsensical war they have already massacred 360.000 Russians, and 70.000 Ukrainians.
Kremlinists / Neosovietists are a poison for civilisation. You can compare them to MS-13. Same mentality.
And... in case you missed it, let me add something that complements “the map” topic, a HIGHLY interesting video that blitz128 posted here today:
Theft of millennia: how Moscovia rebranded itself as ‘Russia’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=B6b7WQy1Y3Q&t=1s
“In this nonsensical war they have already massacred 360.000 Russians, and 70.000 Ukrainians.”
What’s not counted are the deaths peripheral to the war such as people who died from diabetes due to inadequate supplies of insulin, suicides, people who died because Ruzzia destroyed their local hospital and they could not get treatment, Ruzzians who died because militarily critical medical supplies are embargoed, people who’ve died of malnutrition, and now the Ruzzians and Ukrainians who are dying from the cold because heating and power plants are breaking down and not being maintained due to the war.
All thanks to Putin and his fanatical obsession with rebuilding his beloved Soviet Union.
St. Petersburg and Moscow are great places to live if you are rich. Otherwise, not so much.
“Do you ever take a day off from posting Ukrainian propaganda? The money must be real good.”
Your post is itself both propaganda and a logical fallacy.
Instead of addressing this specific post your first sentence attacks Marcus with a combination of Ad Hominem and Smear Campaign propaganda techniques.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4211213/posts
Your second sentence is a Loaded Question style of logical fallacy in that your stated assumption that Marcus is being paid for his post is assumed or inherent in the statement even though it’s unproven.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4211211/posts
Find a youtube channel over 3 years old showing devastating flooding.
Now, you can find some harshness of life in this young lady’s channel. She has become a big vlogger. From Yakutsk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAZ4GXMwH4M
That is post war, from a pre war channel. No evidence of exploding pipes, and if there was, it would be justified.
“Certainly the Saudis and Egypt are not happy with current events. Who might they decide to support if Iran and Pakistan have at it?”
The Saudis have a long and deep security partnership with Pakistan, and a long and deep hostility with the Iranian regime.
The Pakistani nuclear program is often viewed as a joint program with the Saudis, where the Saudis paid a lot of the bills, and the Pakistanis are reportedly to provide weapons on short notice if Saudi needs them.
The Saudis paid a lot of the bills for the Anti-Soviet Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980’s, which the Pakistanis trained and directed.
The Saudis have funded many extremist Mosques and Madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan - notably big ones that produced the leadership of the Taliban.
Saudi Arabia in the past has rented whole Armored Brigades of the Pakistani Army to rotate for duty in Saudi Arabia itself, and provide security for sensitive facilities and missions, such as the construction of King Khalid Military City (KKMC), and in response to to Iranian-inspired terrorist attacks in Mecca.
Not only would Saudi Arabia undoubtedly side with Pakistan over Iran, but Pakistan may actually be putting pressure on Iran at the behest of/in support of Saudi Arabia, who have been at war against the Iranian-backed Houthis in recent years.
Thank you for this interesting conjecture and supporting information. A further fact of interest, Iran has no doubt never forgiven the Saudis for the botched Hajj a few years ago that ended by killing at least 400 Iranian clerics, not to mention thousands from other Muslim countries. I think the total was about 4,000 visitors, not counting home grown Saudi dead. Shows what heat and poor planning can do to an improperly guided crowd.
“Iran, the bothersome and annoying kid on the block who gets along with no one.”
And that includes not getting along with it’s own people. I wonder how the unhappy restive population will react if a more serious situation develops with regard to the mutual strikes with Pakistan. News tonight reported civilians including children were killed by both the attack in Pakistan and the reprisal in Iran. The news comment said these were serious enough strikes to make further actions likely.
Your map is an interesting response to my WHAT IF? questions.
Yes; a big question: How will the non-zealot Iranians react to a war their own government started against a fellow moslem country? Those people are already restless when it comes to their government.
After a generation of the ayatollas, I suspect that most of the young Iranians are not all that concerned with the Muslim issues between the Muslim countries. They seem interested in getting back into this century. Unfortunately the Saudis have done their best to promote 17th century Islam in a number of Muslim countries. The war between Sunni and Shia being fought these days is rather like the wars between Catholics and Protestants 4 or 5 centuries ago—the Hundred Years War, the Thirty Years War, the Spanish Inquisition, etc. The latest news on the Iran/Pakistan dust up is they have kissed and made up, which from what I know of the situation of the trans border Baluchi people does not surprise me.
I had been keeping track of the unrest following the clerical murder of the woman with the wrong scarf habits, but that seems to have subsided. Neverthless I think it is quite clear that some day the old guard is going to die and Iran could become quite different, and hopefully better from our perspective, if these religious wars don’t get the rational people killed in the meantime. I think I will pull up the Iran Search pages and look at some of the back articles.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.