Freezing Russians protest over power 'disgrace'

Vladivostok protest: "We want to live and not just exist"

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) -- Hundreds of residents enraged at chronic power and heating cuts in Russia's Pacific coast region have blocked roads near the port of Vladivostok creating vast traffic jams and disrupting the airport.

Protesters, mostly pensioners and children, snarled traffic for up to 20 kilometres(12 miles) on Friday morning on two thoroughfares.

Most complained of temperatures in apartments climbing no higher than six degrees Centigrade (43 Fahrenheit).

"Mr President! Do Something!" read one placard in the village of Uglovoye. "No water, no heat, no salary. What next?" read another.

President Vladimir Putin has denounced the calamity as a "total disgrace."

He and other officials in Moscow, eight time zones to the west, blame the region's administrators for failing to prepare for what is known in Russian as "the heating season."

Russia's Emergencies Ministry said about 40,000 residents of the Primorye region remained without heating, with temperatures outside plunging to minus 27 Celsius (minus 17 Fahrenheit).

Television pictures have shown children bundled up in winter clothes in apartments, homemakers unable to thaw frozen food and enterprising residents rigging up makeshift heaters.

Local officials led by Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko say the central government's high tariffs for fuel and energy make it impossible to keep heating and electricity plants running.

The Finance Ministry this week made available credit lines of several million dollars to ease the crisis.

Protesters were clearly blaming local authorities. Slogans called for officials to remedy the situation or resign.

"No heat has come through the pipes since winter started," said Mikhail Katyshev, 55, a mechanic. "I plug in electric heaters and end up with an electricity bill three or four times higher than usual. How long can this go on?"

Police tried to restore traffic on roads leading to Khabarovsk, the largest city in Russia's far east, and the port of Nakhodka.

Flights at Vladivostok airport were delayed to allow passengers and mail to make their way through the jam.

Many drivers, though annoyed, said they sympathised with the protesters.

"I understand what they are doing," one truck driver told RTR state television. "We have power and heating cuts at home too."

Television said aviation industry workers in the town of Arsenye further north had also staged a protest to complain about their unheated homes.

Teachers were besieging a local administrative office to demand months of back pay.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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