Event: Russians

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Russians Shiver as War Worsens Underfunding of Heat and Power SystemsA dozen major blackouts and central heating cutoffs across the country have affected hundreds of thousands during a brutal winter.Murmansk, Russia, in 2023. The city has been plagued by power and heating outages this winter. Credit...Nanna Heitmann for The New York TimesFeb. 27, 2026Updated 1:48 p.m. ETOlder women going to bed in their winter coats. Unlit streetlamps hanging over pitch-black city streets. Emergency services setting up heated tents with drinks and snacks.Such scenes are typical in Ukraine as Russia bombards power and heat networks. Now they are being replicated across Russia, but the culprit is the country’s deteriorating public utilities, not enemy fire.Since December, a dozen major blackouts and central heating cutoffs across Russia, from the Murmansk region in the European Arctic to the Pacific Coast, have left hundreds of thousands of Russians with no electricity or heat for days during an unusually brutal winter.Russia’s utilities suffer from chronic underfunding, made worse by resources being diverted to the war, and breakdowns have become more common.“Murmansk feels like a frontline city,” said Violetta Grudina, a local activist now living in exile in Lithuania, who keeps in touch with many people in the city. “Ukraine has been left in the dark while it’s being bombed by Russia. Murmansk is the same but no one is bombing it.”From across the country, Russians have been sending messages and videos of bursting pipes and freezing, darkened homes to Yevgeny Stupin, formerly an elected member of Moscow’s city assembly, who publishes scenes of the infrastructure breakdown every day in his Telegram account.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If…