GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: Across the Pacific in Russia's Far East, another power shortage, but there it is 40 degrees below zero. CNN's Steve Harrigan has a report from Moscow.</s>STEVE HARRIGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 40 degrees below zero, ice inside apartment walls, the dog's water dish frozen solid, and power blackouts combined with one of the coldest winters on record left some residents of Russia's Far East near the breaking point.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I have a young child to feed, and I can't prepare any of his food.</s>HARRIGAN: Protesters have tried to block highways to draw attention to their plight.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I can't have a cup of tea, no hot water, nothing.</s>HARRIGAN: No heat, no light for hundreds of thousands of Russians for 15 hours a day or more. Pipes that are supposed to provide hot water for central heating have frozen and burst. The repair process is decidedly low tech. Thaw the pipes by setting truck tires on fire. The cold is only partly to blame, according to energy officials, who say Russia's power grid has been neglected for decades. Inside this power generating station, workers need a blow torch to read the water pressure.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The cold is normal -- we are supposed to work when its freezing, but 70 to 80 percent of our equipment is broken.</s>HARRIGAN: That means school rooms, where the temperature hovers near freezing, are closed. And, as they did in the time of the czar, Far Easterners burn coal in metal stoves to cook food and keep warm. Even in the shadow of the giant power stations, the people here have been left to fend for themselves. Steve Harrigan, CNN, Moscow.
Russia's Far East Suffering from Record Cold