Siberian storms batter Russia, former Soviet Union

Jan 20, 2012, 11:23 GMT

Moscow/Kiev - Severe winter storms battered Russia and other former Soviet republics on Friday, leaving emergency workers struggling to assist victims, restore power and open roads closed by snow and avalanches.

Poor visibility and road conditions in Ukraine's western Rivno province were being blamed for a highway collision between a minibus and a lorry that killed seven people and severely injured another seven, according to an Interfax news agency report.

An avalanche triggered by heavy snow in Russia's Kolyma region, some 5,300 east of the capital Moscow, had closed a major highway and cut off the city of Magadan and dozens of other towns and villages from the rest of the country, a statement from the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Some motorists were stranded in their vehicles for as long as 12 hours before emergency workers could reach them, the statement said.

Ferries sailing from the Pacific Coast city of Vladivostok, near the North Korean border, were operating at reduced capacity because of sea ice more than a metre thick, transport ministry officials said.

Heavy snows downed power lines in the Russian Black Sea port city of Sochi and across the former Soviet republic of Georgia, some 850 kilometres south of Moscow, where more than 70,000 residences were left without power, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Caucasian Military Highway, the main road connecting Russia and Georgia over the rugged mountain range, was closed with snow drifts in excess of a metre at some locations, according to news reports.

Severe frosts raised havoc across Russia's southeast, especially in the west Siberian cities of Kemerovo and Khakasiya, some 3,000 kilometres from Moscow, where failed heating plants left hundreds in chilly apartments.

Hospitals and orphanages also were hit by the heating cuts, the news agency RIAnovosti reported.

In the adjacent Altai Republic, nighttime temperatures plummeted to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Most schools were closed on Friday and public transport ground to a halt.

Russia's national weather service, Gidromedtsentr, forecast worsening conditions in the coming days, as the Siberian weather front strikes warmer air from the Atlantic region.