Infuriated Vladivostok residents blocked roads in other neighborhoods on both Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The organizers of the Tuesday protest, the Primorye Duma deputies, also invited the demonstrators to sit at the session. But police had orders from the regional executives to keep the crowd out, which led to elbowing and squabbling at the front door. Sergei Khabitov, a soldier in the first Chechen war and now a security guard, was one of the leaders of that rally. Standing in a freezing wind during the road blockade, he complained about his electricity woes.
Lights also come on at night, making people choose between sleep and household chores.
The extensive power cuts, which started over the New Year, also bring to a stop pumps used to circulate hot water for heating. Faced with no heat in addition to the lack of lights, people were in despair. Chief Federal Inspector Pavel Lysov said that 38 apartment buildings in Vladivostok lost heat Tuesday because of the pump problem. Heating was also cut to dozens of buildings and a handful of schools and hospitals throughout the region. Authorities are blaming the weather, the coldest since 1949, for the shortage of electricity.