Winter Woes: Infrastructure Struggles Amid Russias Seasonal Shift

Welcome to Regions Calling, your source for updates from beyond the Moscow capital provided by The Moscow Times.

With frigid temperatures and snowfall expected across much of the country this week, Russia’s renowned winter has officially set in. While this may evoke images of enchanting winter landscapes, the season poses significant challenges for everyday Russians and regional leaders, who appear to be perpetually unready for harsh weather conditions each year.

In this week’s newsletter, we delve into the reality of winter life in Russia’s regions. First, let’s review some additional news items you might have missed:

In the Kursk region, neighboring Ukraine, residents staged protests against the local government’s decision to discontinue monthly compensation for families whose homes were severely damaged during Kyiv’s incursion in 2024-2025.

Former Khabarovsk region Governor Sergei Furgal, currently imprisoned, was recently sentenced to an additional 23 years on various charges, including extensive fraud and abuse of power.

Furgal, one of the rare opposition candidates to win a gubernatorial election during Putin’s rule, was arrested in 2020 on murder allegations, widely viewed as politically motivated, triggering several months of protests in his region.

In Nizhny Tagil, a prominent industrial center in Sverdlovsk, around 200 workers from the Volkovskoe copper mine reported they have not received their salaries for over two months, leaving them unable to afford to leave the site.

“The situation is dire: people can’t pay off loans, mortgages, utility bills, or care for families with children, and they cannot exit the facility,” one worker expressed in a video message shared on Tuesday.

In Chechnya, a Ukrainian drone strike damaged a high-rise building in Grozny that houses several regional government offices, including the Chechen Security Council.

Meanwhile, in Dagestan, nearly 500 endangered Caspian seals were found dead along the Caspian Sea coast. Local authorities have initiated a multi-agency investigation into this incident.

Also, a military court in Khabarovsk sentenced Sasha Alexandrova, an independent journalist from the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), to three years in a penal colony.

Alexandrova was arrested in March on charges of “public justification of terrorism.” While details of her case remain undisclosed, supporters and local activists argue that these charges stem from her outspoken anti-war views.

Winter in Russia’s Regions: A Far Cry from Paradise

“We are capable of organizing the BRICS [summit], the Universiade, and the Sabantuy festivals, yet the onset of winter and the initial heavy snowfall highlight our inadequacies,” acknowledged Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin during a government meeting on Monday.

His remarks followed the admission from the head of the city’s Urban Development Committee that Kazan’s municipal snow removal teams are short roughly 100 specialized workers needed to effectively respond to the first snowfall of the season, expected to hit Tatarstan this week.

From heating failures to congested highways, winter presents substantial hurdles for Russians and local officials alike, as infrastructure and public services struggle to cope with snow and cold spells.

Under pressure from even their most committed supporters, local authorities often attribute the issues to budget constraints, as well as the debts and bankruptcy faced by snow removal and road maintenance contractors.

In Bashkortostan, Tatarstan’s neighbor, local officials in Ufa reported that only half of the necessary positions for city cleaning specialists were filled before winter, leaving around 1,180 roles vacant.

Similar issues have been observed in the Sakha Republic, where winter can last up to nine months.

Municipal services in Yakutsk, the capital of Sakha, were caught unprepared when the first snowfall arrived in September. Residents voiced concerns about snow-covered and icy roads, along with extensive delays in public transportation.

“Every year, snow falls in Yakutsk at the end of September. Each time, the onset of winter catches municipal services off guard, and no one seems ready,” a local resident told the SakhaDay news outlet.

Recent weeks have seen major highways and smaller roads across numerous towns and cities in Russia become nearly impassable as winter weather has fully set in, according to local media reports.

On December 1, hundreds of drivers found themselves stranded on a section of the Baikal Highway, part of the Trans-Siberian Highway, after three days of severe weather pushed temperatures down to nearly minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), coupled with heavy snowfall and fierce winds.

At its height, the traffic jam extended approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) along the southwestern shore of Lake Baikal. Some drivers, including families with children, reported depleting their fuel, water, and food supplies.

Local authorities stated that traffic disruptions were exacerbated when some truck drivers breached road regulations, causing accidents that further blocked the route. However, many drivers stuck for days claimed that snow-clearing crews responded far too slowly.

The traffic situation continued overnight, with some motorists who managed to escape admitting they had to disregard traffic rules to do so, as reported by local media.

“Out of desperation, we drove in the oncoming lane behind an ambulance. There were no warning signs, no alternating lanes. To put it bluntly, it was chaotic,” a driver shared with independent news outlet Veter.

Further south in Siberia, officials in Angarsk declared a state of emergency on Monday after a power plant malfunction left 167,000 residents—over half the town’s population—without heating for three days.

Temperatures dropped below minus 20 C (minus 4 F) on that day.

Similar situations have occurred across Siberia and the Russian Far East. In Vladivostok, 6,000 residents faced heating outages on Monday, although temperatures were milder at minus 3 C (26 F).

“Last year, we endured three days without heating in minus 50 degrees Celsius due to an incident at a heating plant in our area,” a mother of two from Angarsk recounted in an interview with Novaya Gazeta Europe.

“What are parents with small children supposed to do? Sure, adults can manage. Yet, the authorities have warned us not to use electric heaters to avoid overloading the system, which could leave us without power… I’ve already submitted an appeal to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin about this issue,” she added.

Dancers clad in national Sakha attire perform at a tree lighting ceremony in Yakutsk.

The world’s coldest major city, Yakutsk, traditionally kicks off the holiday season in Russia with the country’s first New Year tree lighting ceremony.

Despite temperatures dropping as low as minus 35 C (minus 31 F), hundreds attended the event.