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gazeta.ru
March 18, 2002
Cold War Breaks Out In Lenin’s Hometown
By Andrei Korvin
A real war between the city officials and the local energy supplier has broken out in Ulyanovsk, known as the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin. Regional energy company Ulyanovskenergo has cut off heat and energy supply after the communal utilities failed to repay over 300 million rubles of debts. More than 100 thousand people in the largest district of the city were left without heating and hot water for almost a week. At first the local residents described the conflict between the energy company and the Ulyanovsk’s mayor office as the “cold war”, but now the parties have passed to the offensive.
At the behest of the Ulyanovsk city mayor – the FSB Colonel Pavel Romanenko on Saturday local police and personnel of the city directorate for emergency situations denied energy workers access to their equipment in order to prevent further cutoffs. Being unable to repay the huge debt, Ulyanovsk mayor ordered to tear off the seals and to restore hot water supply.
The energy company Ulyanovskenrego declared this action illegal. In response to that the mayor said in televised comments on the NTV channel: “It's true, we have no legal grounds for stopping the energy company from cutting off hot water supply and using force against the energy provider. But we proceeded from the assumption that the city residents should not be held hostages of any financial and economic relations”.
The mayor’s “armed forces” blocked the entrances to the energy equipment facilities. Their task is to secure the safe access to the equipment for workers of the housing sector, who restore the heat and energy supply to the houses. Following the cutoffs the temperature in Ulyanovsk apartments fell below 5 degrees Centigrade.
The mayor’s office made the first attempt to restore energy supply on Friday evening last week. The attempt failed. After workers of the communal sector opened the valves, the Ulyanovskenergo officials immediately cut off the supply again. It was then that the mayor ordered to restore energy supply by force. Henceforth, all side-valves are guarded by armed policemen.
Formally, the mayor’s office justified its move by the decision of the city directorate for emergencies situations, which is headed by the same Pavel Romanenko. The directorate had authorized the use of force against Ulyanovskenergo citing the regional meteorologists’ frost forecast.
At the same time Pavel Romanenko sent a letter to the President Vladimir Putin, the presidential envoy to the Volga district Sergei Kiriyenko, the national power grid UES’ chief Anatoly Chubais, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and to the Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, whereby he asked the federal authorities to render assistance to the cash-strapped freezing city, and warned that otherwise the mayor’s office “will be compelled to take extreme measures to defend the interests of the city residents”.
The management of Ulyanovskenergo, too, plans to address the above-mentioned persons with a request for help. Ulyanovsk energy workers consider the actions of the mayor’s office not only illegal but also endangering the safety of residents.
According to the company’s chief engineer Alexander Simanovsky, as a result of the armed seizure of the energy supply equipment unskilled persons have been granted access to the sophisticated equipment. Any wrong move may lead to tragedy, Simanovsky charged. The wrong turn of the valve may lead to explosion of radiators in apartments.
Alexander Simanovsky is certain that the energy workers will not stand by idly. Nor will they resort to any extreme measures. They will not even close the thermoelectric power plant – the move that could easily rob the whole city of heat. The company management is set to turn to the police and the prosecutor’s office without delay.
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