Russian Civil Unrest Story Found!

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We apparently all had the "wrong" town!

This from a visiting group of Russian Exchange Students from the Russian city of Anadyr in the Russian Far East:

The unusual act of civil unrest occured in the village of Sireniki.in the Chukotka region of the Russian Far East, on the Bering Sea. Apparently, word of this story is now several weeks old, and is just begining to filter out.

In short, and I will summarize; Area communities had been doing without electricity for most of the winter. When a fuel ship from Vladivostok finally arrived the village was thriled going to bed knowing that they would finally be able to wake up to warm pipes. They were horrified the next morning when they awoke to find the ship gone, and no fuel offloaded! The desperate people stormed City Hall and seized the ballot box Russian Government Elections were then underway, demanding something be done about their lack of fuel. Russian officials eventually gained control of the election documents by promising another fuel barge shipment to be led by an icebreaker.

As a sidenote: as of Tuesday no ship was in site, and they are still waiting! TEOTWAWKI has indeed fallen on these people. Their resiliance under such grim circumstances should be a lesson for us all.

I am unable to link but for full text see:

"Spiral is Steeper in Chukotka's Villages" in the 2 Jan 00 edition of the Anchorage Daily News at adn.search.com or "Sireniki Swaps votes for Fuel" in the Nome Nugget, Jan 6 edition p.4 at www.nomenugget.com.

These fuel games have been played with the Russian Far East Cities/Villages for several years now, worsening with each winter. All this in spite of the fact that the (I believe) largest port in the world, to include the largest Naval Port sits not too far to the south in Vladivostok.

This was not quite the sized riots we were led to believe in the first post, but nonetheless quite rare it seems for Russia!

Not too easy for a village of 400 to stage much of a meaningful riot at minus 30 degrees F. for any real length of time! Maybe last months debacle in Seattle should have been held in one of these Russian Villages! Even the larger cities of Magadan, Anadyr, and Provideniya are running seriously low on fuel and and supplies and have begun rationing. They consider themselves lucky for just rolling brownouts!!!

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), January 07, 2000

Answers

And yet community still endures among them.

If you ask me, no matter what happens, we'll all be able to cope successfully as long as we 'stick together' in mutual respect, and goodwill. Strengthening the bonds of civility in our personal lives and neighborhoods is by far the most potent 'prep' that I think any of us can make, for anything that might occur.

-- tim phronesia (phronesia@webtv.net), January 07, 2000.


One would think that all the physical activity of a riot would warm you up quite nicely...especially if you add in burning lots of stuff (necessary for a truly rip-roaring riot, IMHO :-)

Unfortunate to be them, of course.

-- John H Krempasky (johnk@dmv.com), January 07, 2000.


I find this a very bad report. What can people do to help these people. I don't care what government is in place in any country people are all the same. If we can find a way to help, we should. I don't have much but I would send want I can.

-- ET (bneville@zebra.net), January 07, 2000.

Ok, folks, does anyone remember the guy who was in the Navy who wrote the other day? He said that some port town in Russia was in a state of civil distress and that his ship was sailing from Guam or something and he came here asking for info because he was worried-- REMEMBER>??? Then some lovely skeptics came on and b@tched him out-- called him a fake, a liar, etc. Said that no one had found any evidence of such a ludicrous story. I hope to God he was telling the truth and if so, I am so ashamed of the discourteous and inhumane people act towards strangers in need. If not, it still disgraceful the way certain doubters treat some of the posters online. Ironic thing is, once these newbie poster have been sufficiently scared off, the attacker uses that as "proof" the poster was a fraud. If I was new and had my as* reamed, I wouldn't stick around to post anymore stuff in such a hostile environment. Sheesh, I prefer being a "doomer". Seems most doomers have a helluva alot more humanity about them then the cynics.

-- Jess (alisaunde@aol.com), January 07, 2000.

Thanks to the trolls for developing our paranoia with their fake posts... what is their problem anyway... in 100 words or less :)

-- Carl (clilly@goentre.com), January 07, 2000.


Carl: how about in 5 words: Low or No self esteem.

-- hiding in plain (sight@edge of.nowhere), January 07, 2000.

I have a pen pal in Ozernovsky, Kamchatka, Russia. She is the English teacher at the school in that town/village. We have been writing for almost 9 years, during which time she has written about many of the hardships there (including the waiting in lines for hours to exchange the old money for the new. In her town, they were given 48 hours, she said.). Last spring she told me that her "flat" had been without heat all winter. First the furnace was broken, and after it was fixed, there was no oil, and the harbor was iced over and the fuel ship couldn't come in.

Lat summer, there were electrical problems and she wrote that it was being rationed....her electricity would be on a few hours once a week.

I can mail a letter to Japan and get a response back in 4 days. But it takes THREE MONTHS to get an answer back from Ozernovsky! 6 weeks each way (verified by checking post marks).

She is a wonderful, kind, warm person with a rich sense of humor, and I've found it very rewarding to be her friend. And it has also given me an insight into how other people are living, in other parts of the world.

But I don't know how to help them with their fuel problems! I hope that my friendship helps her, in some way. And that in turn is reflected when she goes to school and teaches the children.

-- Margo (margos@bigisland.com), January 07, 2000.


Not every post was an attack. Several asked for more information, followed by well it's not on the AP wire searchable on Yahoo so it is probably bogus. Think about what just happened. Anyone who was remotely doomerish is early wiping lots of egg of their face. Clue for everyone many doomers are closet doomers. Many people purchased a little extra (just in case). Now the mob rules. The Polly brownshirts are asking for you to announce your allegience to the fatherland. To stand against the crowd not only takes conviction but courage. The louder they squueeeel the more I wonder what is really going on. I am beginning to see the real potential that we may have a wave event. Many miles out a tsunami looks like most other waves, until it hits a shore thousands of miles away. My take is that February will tell ME whether y2k is truly a non event. There is only so much that can be explained away beforeif there are big problems the will grow bigger until you can't sweep them under the rug.

Question everything? Information either comes from a realiable proven source or is verified.

-- Squid (ItsDark@down.here), January 07, 2000.


ET,

"With regard to what can people do to help," I wll research a few of the organizations that have had some success getting relief supplies in and post tomorrow. I know the individuals names, but are not sure of the organizations they represent.

Most (organizations) have given up! One community in SE Alaska raised the money for a shipment of oil to one of these villages, but it was intercepted by he government and never arrived.

Another incident involved a dentist from I believe Sweden this past summer that took his vacation time to go to Providenia to provide free dental care, but was harassed upon entry, with local officials demanding over $15,000 just to bring his equipment in with him. Out of shear disgust, he returned home without looking at one patient!

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), January 07, 2000.


he did have the wrong town--right info. ditto hiding on the "low self esteem". the word these days on this forum from certain people is NOT QUESTION WHAT YOU HEAR BUT ATTACK WHAT YOU HEAR ONLY I DON'T HEAR THE SAME CRITERIA BEING USED ON ALL INFORMATION. ONLY THAT WHICH MAY BE "Y2K RELATED".

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), January 07, 2000.


Back about five years ago I got involved in a Russian Far East fuel deal. It was a real eye opener. I lined up a source for some gas oil (heating oil) to go into Kamchatka. I knew some guys at MAPCO who own a refinery in Alaska. They reluctantly went along and agreed to supply the fuel. We had the small tanker to load at the refinery and then my Russian trader contacts (Sidanko, 2nd largest Russian oil company at the time) were going to lighter into another Russian tanker out at sea (unusual). The Tosco guys turned out ot be right. The deal never came to pass but I learned a lot about the games that are played and why the Russian Far East never has fuel. These Russian oil traders, or a better word would be embezzlers, get Moscow permission and all the bureaucratic paperwork done (read payoffs) to import the fuel. China was booming back then. So the fuel gets bought, it gets shipped to China instead of the Russian Far East. The funds go from China into some offshore bank account in Cyprus and the Kamchatkins go without fuel all winter.

-- Downstreamer (downstream@bigfoot.com), January 07, 2000.

Jess and tt:

I was one of those who questioned the original post about the "rioting" going on in Russia. In case you have forgotten, the original poster, a "Mr. Greer", stated that the city involved was Novsobirsk, the Red Guard had been called in, the "entire grid" was down, and that his ship was sailing to Korea as a caution in case greater violence errupted.

ALL OF THAT WAS WRONG!

The power grid was humming, there was no Red Guard fighting rioters in Novo-anything, there wasn't even a confirmation of the radio station the report was supposedly heard on. There is, in consequence, a reasonable doubt that the rest of the report was fake, too.

Now, someone posts above that another Russia village (not a major city) had a civil disturbance earlier in the year. Guess what? It's not the same story. The US is not sending ships to Korea become some peeved residents of a little village tear apart a ballot box!

Yes, we can all sympathize with the sad plight of these people -- but the original story remains UNCONFIRMED.

You can't stop using your reasoning powers become the world didn't go up in a giant fireball at 01/01/00 -- in fact, with all the practice and experience we've had pre-y2k, we ALL ought to be pretty careful in what we accept as truth.

"Trust, but verify" is still a good policy -- and we never got the original story verified. It was bogus.

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), January 07, 2000.


For ET,

More information on this situation/providing assistance to these people available at:

http://www.geocities.com/ATHENS/ATLANTIS/7097/aid99.htm

or "Alaska Friends of Chukotka" at:

http://www.uuff.org/chukotka.htm

I represent neither organization! Know the women that heads second organization. She was formerly local college President. Can vouch for her and and the work that they do.

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), January 07, 2000.


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