“We are abandoned people”
For over a week, people in the southwest of Russia’s Karelia region have been trying to cope with the aftermath of storms and snowfalls which left a dozen and a half settlements without power. The problems have been going on for years, says local farmer Elena Zhamgaryan. “And everyone knows it, and everyone is silent. I will not remain silent any longer,” the woman says in a video that has been making rounds on local media and Telegram.
“I have five children, but that’s half the trouble. I and the children can be fine with a bonfire or with a candle, it’s not a problem. But tell me, please, what should I do with the livestock? Should I light a candle for it? What should I do?
Who will pay me for all the damage that was done to me in four days?” Elena Zhamgaryan, a resident of the Lahdenpohja district of Karelia, recorded this emotional video in her car. It was pitch black outside. Elena is a mother of many children and a farmer. At the time of recording the video, her farm had been without power for four days; at the time of speaking to the Barents Observer, it had been six days. In the second half of November, snowfalls and storms left hundreds of settlements in the Smolensk and Tver Regions without electricity in addition to Lahdenpohja.
The authorities declared a state of emergency in Lahdenpohja, and Karelia’s governor Artur Parfenchikov sent his minister to the site and started complaining about the scale of disaster. Locals, in turn, began to complain about officials. For example, residents of the village of Tiurula made a public appeal to the State Duma deputy Valentina Pivnenko. They say utility accidents happen all the time. Long power outages lead to fatal consequences – without electricity, many houses have no water or heating.
“Help us ensure safe and comfortable living conditions for us and our children!” people appealed to Pivnenko, who has held a seat in the State Duma for almost 30 years. Farmer Elena Zhamgaryan was more outspoken in her statements: “The emergency occurred many years ago. And everyone knows it, and everyone is silent. And I will not remain silent any longer. It is good there, where someone is warm and dry.
And here it is very damp and dark for us. Let's all get up together and do something. Because it is impossible to live like this. This has been going on for years. We all put up with this, we are silent, nothing happens,” the woman says in a video that has been making rounds on local media and Telegram.
Zhamgaryan lives in the center of the municipality, while her farm is located in the tiny village of Hankanmäki. She told the Barents Observer that due to the long-term power outage, several of her chickens died and her goats stopped producing milk, an important source of her income. At the same time, the tax office recently called her and reminded her that she needed to pay property taxes by December 2. “This has never happened in all my years of working as an entrepreneur. You might think that they were scammers, but the number was a city number, an official one.
It's a very funny story: what, the state has no money, and that's why it begs for taxes?” Elena Zhamgaryan wondered. “The roads are like in 1945” The farmer offered a simple explanation why she decided to record her video – “I’m fed up.” “They already wrote to me: ‘Lena, what have you done? You should have stayed low and kept quiet.’ My children say: ‘Mom, let’s hide you in the basement so that you won’t be killed for telling the truth…’ Zhamgaryan listed the problems that her fellow locals face on a daily basis. “You should see the roads in our town: it’s like we’re in 1945! We’ve given up on education, the children in Lahdenpohja study in two shifts: the school is undergoing repairs, the [construction] team has left, the renovation is not finished.
I have a disabled child; do you know where I go for medical care? To Priozersk, which is in the Leningrad region. But what can you do if we don’t have medical care, there are no doctors. Very small salaries, this is already the norm. At state-owned enterprises, they pay minimum wage.
And there are no jobs! What we have here – shops, marketplace pickup centres, a school, a hospital… I tried to get a job at a tourist center, they told me – we don’t need people our age, we need young people. Do you know how many people are leaving? (According to official data, the municipality’s population has decreased by 14 percent over three years).
And I will also leave Karelia as soon as I sell my house. We live here, and everyone thinks about how to leave.” Elena Zhamgaryan does not name any specific names, but she makes clear who she believes is responsible for what is happening. My parents always said, “The fish rots from the head,” the woman said. “Before, the people elected the mayor; now, no one elects the mayor, whoever is appointed is the mayor. Before, they turned to the people, tried to solve problems.
But now, why go there? The officials sit behind closed doors, there is no point in going to them.” The fish rots from the head” The Barents Observer previously reported on how authorities in Russia’s northern regions are helping the occupied territories of Ukraine prepare for winter. Karelia is also implementing infrastructure projects on foreign soil, while its authorities are now struggling to cope with the consequences of snowfalls. All this is happening against the backdrop of increasing economic and social problems: the population is shrinking while there is a shortage of workers.
