They May Have Claimed the Arctic...

...but they still have no hot running water in the summer. Maybe they should have stuck a titanium flag on an evian or bon aqua factory...

NY Times: The dour Moscow of cold war film strips is long gone. But every summer, the people here get a taste of old-style deprivation, as if they were flung back to a time when they had to queue up at dawn to buy a few coils of mealy sausage. In neighborhoods rich and poor, for as long as a month, most buildings have no running hot water, not a drop.

Buildings in Moscow usually receive hot water from a series of plants throughout the city, not from basement boilers, as in the US. By summer, the plants and the network of pipelines that transport hot water need maintenance. Off goes the hot water. And in homes across the city, out come the pots and sponges and grumbling.

Moscow is not alone in its summertime water woes. St. Petersburg and other Russian cities have similar systems. But it galls some Muscovites that a city of such power and money cannot provide a basic necessity year-round.