Siberian freeze, Novosibirsk and Moscow suffer heating crisis amid bitter cold

Novosibirsk is Siberia's largest city, and the third largest city in Russia (1,620,162 residents) following Moscow and St. Petersburg. The area is going through an extreme cold spell, with the mercury dipping below -4 F.

Additionally, the city has been hit with a huge malfunction. Reports from platform X indicate that a central heating pipe installed in 1974 has ruptured, resulting in flood-like conditions in Novosibirsk. Many neighborhoods have lost heating and hot water, and the night temperature reaches around -13 F.

Following the loss of heating in parts of Novosibirsk due to the failure of the old Soviet-era central heating pipe, which lasted for half a century and flooded the city, an investigation is underway to identify and penalize the responsible parties - as per social media reports.

For the city's residents, the lack of heating is a significant problem in this severe weather, and it is an issue that others in Russia are also grappling with.

Suburbs of Moscow are beginning to face problems with their energy infrastructure. According to reports, over 20,000 people are without heating.

"The entrance has been completely frozen for four days. The temperature in the apartments is around 41 F. Anyone who could, evacuated independently. Those who remain are heating as best as they can. The children are falling sick," said a resident of Elektrostal in a shaken voice.

Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, attributed this heating crisis in many regions to excessive cold and worsening conditions of housing and community services, asserting that it "takes time to fix."

He further assured that lessons would be learned from these challenges, but pointed out that "the Kremlin has no complaints against the work of officials and specialized services."