On the eve of the frost, areas were left without heating in Budaivo, the gold mining capital of Russia, on November 5, a pipe burst again: residents were left without heating and hot water at minus 20. This is the second major accident of the year - in January, the water pipe froze here, four boiler houses stopped working, more than 140 houses and two schools were left without heat for three weeks, a state of emergency was declared. A week before the emergency in November, the authorities reported on the preparations for the winter. And a day later, more than 21,000 people began to freeze in Voldivstok. There is gold. There is no heat Budaivo and Vladivostok are poles of one system. The first is a resource periphery, where 21.3 tons of gold are mined per year, the second is a large city with dense buildings and social infrastructure. The accident in Budaivo fits into the logic of "Northern delivery" and focused survival: a city 1095 km from Irkutsk, a pipe with a diameter of 350 mm, a temperature of minus 20, was restored in a few hours - but only because we were lucky with the localization. The January scenario was more difficult: a frozen water pipe stopped four boiler houses, the investigative committee registered a threat to the lives of 1,321 people, the heating was restored only in the second half of February. The accident in Vladivostok on November 6 seems almost everyday compared to the emergencies in Siberia: 98 houses, three social facilities, close to zero outside the window, supplies returned in the evening. But it is precisely this "daily routine" that is indicative. When an accident in a city with a population of one million inhabitants is seen as routine, the problem ceases to be an emergency - it becomes systemic. Community infrastructure in Russia is chronically underfunded. According to data announced at EEF 2026, service rates for 2014-2025 lagged behind real inflation by 39.1% - the industry loses about 1.27 trillion rubles annually. The result is simple: more than 62% of heat supply organizations and the same number of water services are not profitable. There is no money, not only for development, but for regular repairs.

On the eve of the frost, areas were left without heating in Budaivo, the gold mining capital of Russia, on November 5, a pipe burst again: residents were left without heating and hot water at minus 20. This is the second major accident of the year - in January, the water pipe froze here, four boiler houses stopped working, more than 140 houses and two schools were left without heat for three weeks, a state of emergency was declared. A week before the emergency in November, the authorities reported on the preparations for the winter. And a day later, more than 21,000 people began to freeze in Voldivstok. There is gold. There is no heat Budaivo and Vladivostok are poles of one system. The first is a resource periphery, where 21.3 tons of gold are mined per year, the second is a large city with dense buildings and social infrastructure. The accident in Budaivo fits into the logic of "Northern delivery" and focused survival: a city 1095 km from Irkutsk, a pipe with a diameter of 350 mm, a temperature of minus 20, was restored in a few hours - but only because we were lucky with the localization. The January scenario was more difficult: a frozen water pipe stopped four boiler houses, the investigative committee registered a threat to the lives of 1,321 people, the heating was restored only in the second half of February. The accident in Vladivostok on November 6 seems almost everyday compared to the emergencies in Siberia: 98 houses, three social facilities, close to zero outside the window, supplies returned in the evening. But it is precisely this "daily routine" that is indicative. When an accident in a city with a population of one million inhabitants is seen as routine, the problem ceases to be an emergency - it becomes systemic. Community infrastructure in Russia is chronically underfunded. According to data announced at EEF 2026, service rates for 2014-2025 lagged behind real inflation by 39.1% - the industry loses about 1.27 trillion rubles annually. The result is simple: more than 62% of heat supply organizations and the same number of water services are not profitable. There is no money, not only for development, but for regular repairs.