Pskov Governor Suggests Lack of Heat in Region’s Homes May be Result of ‘Sabotage’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 11 – After residents of a village suffering from a lack of heat complained, Pskov Governor Mikhail Vedernikov promised “a thorough investigation” and suggested that among the possible causes of this disaster are “criminal negligence,” “incompetence,” and “sabotage” (using the Russian word often translated as “wrecking.”

            He is the first but likely won’t be the last Russian regional head to revive what was typically the explanation for any problems in Stalin’s time (echofm.online/news/pskovskij-gubernator-posle-zhaloby-zhitelej-zamerzayushhego-posyolka-nazval-vreditelstvo-sredi-vozmozhnyh-prichin-otsutstviya-tepla).

            In fact, the lack of heat thousands of Russians across the country are now suffering from almost certainly are the result of the failure of the Russian government to repair and replace aging infrastructure. But suggesting that there are “wreckers” about, exactly what the Soviet state would have said in Stalin’s time, may be as good a way as any to distract them.  

            But doing so comes with a risk: the use of this loaded term will remind everyone in that region and elsewhere of just how far the Putin regime has gone in reviving the totalitarianism of Stalin’s time when as in Mussolini’s Italy the ruler is always right and problems are the work of criminal “wreckers.”