From the editor
Rivers bursting their banks in Russia have caused devastating floods in Kazakhstan and regions of Russia that border the Central Asian country this week. In Kazakhstan the disaster has resulted in more than 100,000 people having to be evacuated. In Russia there have been recriminations as residents of affected areas such as Orsk in Orenburg Oblast have come out to protest, while local authorities have responded by blaming them for ignoring evacuation orders.
People were rescued from flooded Orsk, Orenburg Oblast, with dinghies
Orsk was the location of a dam breach last Friday that flooded the city of nearly 240,000. A second dam breach in the same area occurred on Monday. Officials suggested that the dam could have been “gnawed by rodents,” while the governor of Orenburg Oblast, Denis Pasler, commented, “It’s hard for me to call this a dam. This is an embankment structure, a fence along the Ural river. There is no concrete base, no concrete walls, no concrete slabs.” Responding to complaints that Vladimir Putin had not visited the flooded areas, his spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that although the president was not there physically, he was constantly working on the issue. The flood response included a ban on sales of alcohol in some areas.
Furious Orsk residents watched as Minister for Emergency Situations Alexander Kurenkov and a squadron of uniformed officials floated past them on a comfortable boat as they themselves struggled in dinghies. “Should’ve fucking brought Putin with them!” a woman shouted. At a protest outside the city’s administrative building on Monday people shouted “Putin help!” and “Shame! Shame! Shame!” They were unhappy with the amount of compensation being offered and the failure of the dam after its high cost to build. Initially victims of flood damage had been offered 25,000-50,000 roubles ($269-$538). After the protest authorities promised to double that.
On Wednesday evacuations were taking place in Orenburg, which has a population of just over half a million. Pasler told Putin the damages to the region would amount to more than 40 billion roubles ($425.5 million). There was also severe flooding in Kurgan Oblast, and yesterday the high water reached Tomsk Oblast further east.
At the same time Russia has continued to pound Ukraine with missiles and drones relentlessly. Kharkiv has been under constant attack and Russia has completely destroyed the Tripilska thermal power plant in Kyiv Oblast. Russian TV hosts have openly said that the country’s aim is now the “de-electrification” of Ukraine. In Odesa Russia bombed a railway bridge and the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote that Russian forces were congratulating the city on the 80th anniversary of its liberation from the fascists. Five people were killed in a Russian missile strike on residential buildings in Mykolaiv. An attack on residential buildings in Poltava Oblast killed one person and injured 16 others.
In the United States House Speaker Mike Johnson has been holding up a vote on the desperately needed $60 billion of funding for Ukraine, and the country is running out of ammunition and air defences. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also confirmed this week that the Biden administration has tried to talk Ukraine out of striking Russia’s energy infrastructure. “Certainly those attacks could have a knock-on effect in terms of the global energy situation,” he said. “But quite frankly I think Ukraine is better served going after tactical and operational targets that can directly influence the current fight.”
It feels like Ukraine will not have to wait for Donald Trump to become president and undermine NATO for the United States to almost completely abandon it. Joe Biden is hardly in a rush to come to the rescue and is bogged down in deciding what to do about the Gaza conflict, as well as focusing on his own re-election campaign. The inert EU isn’t acting on its own either. Russia is sinking under flood waters and destroying itself with corruption, but it remains determined to prove that no matter how much it is suffering, it can always harm others more.
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