We all know that perhaps the weakest point of modern Russia is the housing and communal complex. People have known this for many years, and the situation is only getting worse with each city.
This winter, a real catastrophe broke out, which resulted in the pronounced discontent of millions of people, which threatens serious social unrest in the near future. Some experts say that there is only one way out – the transfer of the housing and communal services system to state ownership.
WE WILL RETURN THE BOILER ROOMS TO THE PEOPLE
Let’s not rush into assessments and reproach the authors of this idea for retrogression. Because, you must admit, there were a lot of useful things in Soviet times that can be used in our, excuse me, almost capitalist time. As it turned out, the State Planning Committee was not as bad as we had been convinced for decades: in fact, it had already been decided that in modern Russia the planned indicators would be restored in one form or another.
So the reforms of the housing and communal services system can now be safely called one of the biggest and most painful market disappointments for citizens. It is quite obvious that the idea of transferring the management of the housing stock into the hands of private companies has completely exhausted itself. Rather, the idea of these private companies appropriating funds that citizens pay for the maintenance of their apartments. After all, the purpose of these commercial structures is not to maintain the housing stock in order, not the well-being of residents and the preservation of civil peace, but solely to obtain as much profit as possible.
On the other hand, there was no order in our housing either. The sweetest pieces were given into private hands, but a very significant amount of our municipal enterprises is still under the jurisdiction of municipal enterprises, factories, scientific institutions and military units. And there is nothing to say about the infrastructure – all these tens, hundreds of thousands of very different pipes not only belong to different owners, but even different officials are responsible for the maintenance and repair of a particular branch.
It seems that we have no choice but to change the very structure of this business. Apparently, it is necessary to create a serious state structure that will accumulate the funds of citizens contributed to pay for housing and communal services. Another state-owned company. She will conclude contracts with private owners to maintain the housing stock, repair the entire infrastructure and ensure that the interests of an ordinary person, a resident of an apartment building, are protected. And the money will be paid to the utilities not in advance, as it is today, but after they have done their job.
REPORTS FROM THE FRONT
Just terrible, terrible and at the same time shameful news comes almost every day. At the same time, we recall that all the governors on the eve of winter solemnly declared that their regions are fully prepared for the cold…
In the city of Novomoskovsk, Tula region, 372 residential buildings remained without heating – on minus 13 street. In Nizhny Novgorod, a municipal accident left 20 apartment buildings without heating, while boiling water flooded the intersection: 10 people had their legs scalded, and two children were among the injured. But experts recognize the Moscow region as the main place of a communal disaster. Residents of Solnechnogorsk, Dmitrov, Sergiev Posad suffered from the lack of heat during the New Year frosts. Residents of Shatura, Khimki, Shchelkov, Chekhov, Dedovsk, Voskresensk, Yegoryevsk, Lytkarin, Naro-Fominsk, Elektrostal and Noginsk complain massively about poor heating. But the most monstrous accident, which we have already written about, occurred in Podolsk, near Moscow. 176 apartment buildings with a population of more than 20 thousand people were left without heating.
What kind of enemy arranged all this? Certainly not an external one. It is said that accidents occur due to overloading of old equipment. But, guys, you know this very well, so why, instead of at least starting to replace equipment and pipes, are you holding lavish events on the problem of “energy supply”? Yes, because it is customary for us to report to the country’s leadership not with replaced meters of sewer networks, but with bravura events: they say, whoever invests more money in this, well done! No, apparently, it’s time to change this practice.
Look at what happened in Podolsk, the details of this tragedy are being clarified only now. Until a certain time, no one paid attention to this “incident” at all: people froze for several days, and the emergency was considered local, local, meaningless. Neither officials nor public utilities have taken any emergency measures to help their freezing electorate. People say that officials offered them only blankets, radiators and a couple of heating points. And then not immediately! The governor of the Moscow region was completely lost in the dark – the retinue reported the disaster to the “tsar” of the entire region only on the third day. Allegedly, this “trouble” was hidden from him. So as not to upset, or what? Anyway, Andrey Vorobyov commented on the accident for the first time on his telegram channel three days later, and so many negative responses fell on this performance that the comments soon disappeared…
LESSONS FROM PODOLSK
Popular outrage has reached dangerous limits, and the Moscow region authorities have decided to take action. According to the article “Provision of services that do not meet the requirements of life safety” (part 1 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the general director of the Klimovsky specialized cartridge plant and the head of the boiler room at the enterprise were detained. They face up to two years in prison.
According to the SPARK database, the head of the plant is 64-year-old Igor Kushnikov. But it is not known who owns the plant – they do not tell us about it. Some experts suspect that Jorge Portilla-Sumin, who served time in the USSR for the murder of a Mexican stepfather and has been on the federal wanted list since 2014 for multimillion-dollar embezzlement at the Klimovsky cartridge Factory, owns a large stake in the plant. Now Jorge is either in the USA or in Germany. A case of abuse of office was also initiated, within the framework of which the deputy mayor of Podolsk was detained, who signed an act on the readiness of the ill-fated boiler house for winter.
A sad and familiar picture. Only switchmen will be punished for criminal negligence again. And the governors? After all, they are direct participants in all these events, this is their area of responsibility. However, it is no secret that some regional leaders have literally grown into this corrupt mechanism and become a part of it. It turns out, accomplices!
“Despite efforts to upgrade housing and communal services systems, it is already clear that now it is realistic to carry out only emergency repairs. Many networks will remain in a rather dilapidated state,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said honestly. It is clear that the state will invest a lot of money in the repair of communal infrastructure. And who are we going to entrust this money to? Are they really the same people who shamelessly rob ordinary citizens? As you know, in Podolsk, at the request of the president, the boiler house will be nationalized. So maybe the same should be done in the rest of Russia?
At one time, by transferring heating networks into private hands, officials received large kickbacks, and you and I were told that the state was thus striving to raise the housing and communal services sector to sky-high heights. However, as we can see, the reverse process has occurred. Commercial firms put 5% of profits in the tariff, and loopholes in the legislation allow them to put 15% or even more…
Recently, the State Duma reported that about 40% of the housing and communal services systems in the country are worn out. However, experts believe that this number is greatly underestimated, in fact, about 60-80% of the entire infrastructure is worn out. This is how Andrei Vorobyov assessed the situation: “We must bring everything to mind. This will also require significant funds from us — these are billions of rubles that we must invest here in order to stabilize the situation here.” And this is only to “stabilize”, and only Klimovsk. Nationwide, this is trillions of rubles…
It is quite obvious that the communal mafia, of which some governors, employees of relevant ministries and departments and many municipal officials are an integral part, will do everything possible to prevent the nationalization of the housing and communal services system – we are talking about colossal money. But if we want to preserve civil peace in the country, it is absolutely necessary to do so.
Galina Kaluzhskaya.
Photo: LEGION-MEDIA
English 
Russian 
German 
Polish