Bashkiria head flooded with heating bill complaints

Residents of Bashkiria are flooding the social media of regional head Radiy Khabirov with complaints about heating prices. They are outraged by the amounts indicated in the bills sent out for January.

“Why is the January heating bill for a 61-square-meter apartment 6,522 rubles ($65 at current rates), while neighbors with 56 square meters were charged 8,080 rubles ($81)? Please publish a detailed breakdown: the tariff, meter readings, standards, and the date of data transmission. We beg you to look into this! Total utility payments for January come to 14,678.40 rubles ($147)!” — marvels Dina E. in the comments under Khabirov’s post on VK.

“8,500 rubles ($85) just for heating,” writes Ildar I. “With such heating prices, we’ll soon be reduced to begging! Or should we write directly to the prosecutor’s office and the antimonopoly service?”

“Why such tariffs? Why should I, a single mother, have to pay 12,000–13,000 rubles ($120–$130 at current rates) for housing?” complains Aigul I.

“The bills for January came: for 59 square meters, heating was 8,700 rubles ($87 at current rates), total utilities come to 13,500 rubles ($135). What is this??? Half a salary. How is this even possible??” laments Svetlana Sh.

Recall, the approval of tariffs was announced a couple of months earlier. It then became clear that in most municipalities of Bashkiria, the amount of payments could increase by 1.7%, and from October 1 — by 12.8%, but residents of a number of districts and cities were warned of a noticeable increase in heating costs (link).