OREANDA-NEWS. January 04, 2011. Prime Minister Putin was informed by Mr Gromov, Mr Shmatko and Mr Shvets that electricity had been fully restored in Moscow Region communities. However, new outages occurred in the night on New Year’s day, but electricity there “is being restored on schedule,” according to IDGC Holding’s director general. During the meeting, the prime minister spoke with Nizhny Novgorod Governor Valery Shantsev on the phone regarding outages in some locations in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, gentlemen. Happy New Year! I know you spent the night working here, in the Moscow Region and in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, where an emergency response centre was set up following my request. Both repair workers and the heads of all the municipalities affected by the weather have been working on the relief effort. We'll speak today with Valery Shantsev, governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

First, I would like to thank you and everyone involved for the work you've done. And, by the way, work done on a holiday must be compensated fairly. Bonuses are in order.

But we are more interested in the results than the work, so our discussion will focus on results. And I have information here, which I shared with the governor of the Moscow Region yesterday, that in some places people were illegally asked to pay money to have their electricity reconnected. I will ask law enforcement to thoroughly investigate the matter. Let's talk about what has been done here, in the Moscow Region.

Boris Gromov: Yes, Mr Putin, I already asked Colonel General Nikolai Golovkin, the head of the Moscow Region's Central Internal Affairs Directorate, to investigate the matter. He will carry out an investigation, and, if he finds out that the reports are true, he will act accordingly.

Now regarding what has been done. All communities affected by the winter rain have had their electricity connection restored. The last community in the Shakhovskaya District, with 86 residents, had their electricity returned an hour ago, thank God. Yesterday I visited one of the remotest districts, the Ruza District, for a second time. I had already visited it three days ago. I visited four villages and six families and talked with people. Both before and after the New Year holiday, people have had a good, calm attitude about the situation. They understand that bad weather is to blame, and none of them had any criticisms of our work, only gratitude. People have a good attitude about the situation.

Vladimir Putin: Of course, when people see that the authorities are taking the right steps and helping local residents, they respond positively.

Let's hear about the situation in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. (Calls Nizhny Novgorod Governor Valery Shantsev). Hello, Mr Shantsev, Happy New Year! How are things coming along there? How many communities are without electricity? How many? Yes... What do you think, when will things be fixed? By the end of today? Ok, we'll call you, and you can inform me of the results then. Good luck! Don't forget to thank all the people who worked tonight. The heads of municipal governments were working, weren't they? Good, that was the right thing to do. Where are you now? On site, yes? Ok, then take care. Bye. (End of call)

He said 2,500 people are without electricity, but he promised they would have it by the end of the day.

And what's your assessment of the situation?

Nikolai Shvets: Mr Putin, we have fully restored electricity in the Moscow Region. The relief work in the Moscow Region is being held up by snowfall and strong winds. Trees are falling, and on New Year's night five 110kW overhead lines, eleven 6–10kW overhead lines and 187 transformer substations failed. All teams are still working, and none of the teams from other regions have left yet. We plan to fix new outages in the Moscow Region on schedule.

Vladimir Putin: How many trees?

Nikolai Shvets: 998 trees were removed tonight.

Vladimir Putin: You are using only your own staff or outside workers as well?

Nikolai Shvets: Because we use special lifting equipment in our work on power transmission lines and electric installations, only people with proper training can operate it. But in general, we use our teams and add on new teams that come from other regions.

Vladimir Putin: What is the forestry administration doing?

Nikolai Shvets: Mr Putin, this is a separate issue that requires serious attention. We must strike a balance between environmental safety and the safety of energy facilities. Power engineers are now responsible for maintaining line routes, protected power line zones and clearings. This should fall under forestry work. Strict boundaries of protected power line zones must be established in law and the Federal Service for Supervision of Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management must file claims with forestry organisations regarding the location of trees that threaten the operation of hydrotechnical facilities.

Vladimir Putin: Ok, draw up these proposals together with Mr Shmatko.

Nikolai Shvets: Mr Shmatko and I have already prepared these proposals.

Boris Gromov: Excuse me, but I think we just have to make clearings larger...

Vladimir Putin: Yes, yes. Mr Shmatko, please go ahead.

Sergei Shmatko: Mr Putin, on your instruction, I went to Podolsk and the Ramenskoye District yesterday to meet with the locals. All the towns we visited had their electricity restored that night; one community got electricity back towards midnight. As Mr Gromov mentioned, people have a good attitude about it. People talked a lot about the support provided by local authorities: town councils came and asked what should be done about the heating.

A lot of questions were asked about gas infrastructure there (there must be problems). We reached an understanding. You know, the Ministry of Energy is responsible for these issues...So when we got there, we got directly involved.

Vladimir Putin: You should visit there more frequently.

Sergei Shmatko: Ok, Mr Putin. It was interesting that locals are quite familiar with the relations with the forestry sector, it was on display even in discussions with town councils. All the people who live there apparently helped remove the fallen trees, and they were talking about how to improve the laws and how new rules on extending clearings must be introduced and that the Federal Agency for Forestry should be responsible for this work. We have prepared a number of proposals with IDGC Holding. I will report to you on it in writing, both regarding changes to the laws and changes in how duties are delegated among federal executive authorities.

According to our statistics, we will have to remove about 8,000 hectares of trees in the Moscow Region to make the clearings wide enough. These are today's figures.

Vladimir Putin: Ok. I would like you to monitor the situation, keep it under control and quickly respond to any others challenges nature throws our way.

Thank you all once again and Happy New Year!