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Russian frosts came as a surprise

Moscow. (RIA Novosti analyst Vladimir Simonov.) When it is +30C in summer and -40C in winter, the length of aluminum wire is reduced by one fifth. Many Russians will now remember this technical detail forever.

Electric wires break in the bitter frost, leaving everyone stranded without life-giving energy: residential houses with grandmothers, rural hospitals with patients, and trolleybuses with passengers.

Broken electricity network is not the biggest trouble for Russia, which has been covered by a giant wave of Arctic air from the Kara Sea. The Nature is testing Russia with unusually low temperatures: from -25C in central areas to -53C in Western and Eastern Siberia.

There is a miniscule icicle on the inside of my windowpane. My apartment in downtown Moscow is more or less warm, but no window weather strips can protect against the icy wind. Frosty lace on the windows has changed the image of Moscow. Clouds of steam over thermal power stations working at the limit of their capacity look like nuclear mushrooms against the blue skies. Streets are empty. There are no idle passers-by, nor even the usual traffic jams. This Wednesday recovery vehicles had to rescue the drivers of 186 cars, who got stuck in the cold.

In the evening Moscow looks a bit like it did in the blackout during the war. Outdoor ads are switched off in many districts; the merry entertainment facilities are submerged in twilight. The load on the city's energy system has reached its historic peak. The cautious RAO UES, Russia's national energy monopolist, has decided to reduce considerably the consumption of electricity.

But the socially vital installations have not been cut out. The blackout has affected food and clothing markets, casinos, amusement arcades, and newspaper kiosks. Construction sites are receiving less energy than usual, but nobody is too upset. It is too cold to lay bricks or concrete, and someone should take pity on the workers.

Gazprom is trying to make up for a temporary shortage of electricity. Some foreign media have lashed out against it once again for reducing gas supplies to Europe, this time because of the bitter frost rather than Ukraine. But this is not true. Gazprom press service has stressed that Russia is fulfilling its contractual commitment to the West. The freezing compatriots do receive 40% more gas, but this does not affect gas deliveries to the West.

Newspapers are sold out within minutes of delivery. They frontpage life in Russia in the second Ice Age. People of every occupation want to play a role in this new world of icicles and Arctic winds. Doctors tell elderly people with heart problems not to move for some time after going out in order to adapt to low temperatures. But what if you get a cold while waiting?

Art critics and restorers are worried about the architectural image of St. Petersburg. Combined with humidity, the frost may damage its famous monuments. Water permeates small cracks in the granite, gets frozen, and blows up a monument from within. Sculptor Etienne Falcone, who made his famous Bronze Horseman in 1782, could never imagine that it could be matted.

Zoologists are worried about animals. Only frost-resistant mouflons and white tail antelopes are having fun outdoors. All others are kept in warm shelters. The cold is a real ordeal for elephants, which are traveling with small urban tent shows. These tropical giants start sneezing and coughing almost like humans. Performers of the private circus in Yaroslavl decided to save an elephant with a tried-and-tested popular method - he received a bucket of vodka and seven kilos of vegetables mixed with bread. But the inebriated elephant got into a state and tore out the only radiator. Now electric heaters are on in the cages, increasing the burden on RAO UES.

Kids are happy about the cold. Schoolchildren in 10 regions around Russia are on unplanned vacation. No flu epidemic is a spin-off.

This motley mosaic of extremes, sometimes amusing, but mostly alarming, is haunted by gloomy statistics. In the last few days, hundreds of people in Russia were taken to hospitals because of frostbite. Twenty were hospitalized in Moscow, and two died.

In the meantime the polar frost seems to be contributing to religious fever. Russia's multi-million Orthodox community sees it as a divine omen that the baptismal frost is bang on time, on January 19, the Epiphany. Water is being blessed all over the country. Believers think that it acquires medicinal, if not magical qualities. The most zealous cannot resist the temptation of taking a ritual plunge in an ice-hole. On Thursday, when the temperature dropped to -33C, the police had problems with organizing the parking of numerous cars at the popular Silver Forest. There were at least 10 deputies of the State Duma among the bathing enthusiasts. It seems that the frost is enhancing the religious sentiments of government officials better than a most fervent sermon.

One respectable Western information service wrote on an Internet site that the advent of Arctic frosts has reduced Russia to panic. This is ridiculous and totally untrue. We have serious difficulties, and tragedies happen, too. But people in Russia always rally in times of trial, like they did during the Plague, revolutions, famine and wars. Such ordeals help millions to identify themselves as a single nation - the people of Russia.