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Tomsk in April

 Tomsk expects the opening/breaking of the ice on the Tom River from day to day.

Once in my previous life, the ice drift was a whole event. The beginning of spring. The Tomichi (Tomsk citizens)  went to the riverbank just to watch the blocks of ice break on the pillars of the bridge over the Tom River. The sight is fascinating. I don't know if I miss it? But I love the force/power in nature, whether it's ice drift, wind, thunderstorm ... All this reminds me of the storm in Lermontov's work “Mtsyri". I already mentioned this once, in another post here.



Here is a short video my son sent me last year.







The other weird, or maybe not, news about a building collapsing. The building belonged to the Electric Lamp Factory. 

My friend Marina, whose photos I often publish when I write about Tomsk, worked there for many years. At some point during the Soviet Union collapse she was getting her salary by bulbs. Crazy times!

The building was closed by court order. It was reported that the reason for the closure was a violation of fire safety rules and urban planning standards in the arrangement of the institution, including the presence of an unauthorized extension. The Mayor's Office reported that legal proceedings against the facility have been underway since 2015.

Last night, this time a part of a brick wall fell on the sidewalk, which is why the passage there is currently closed.


The Kirov court* of Tomsk on Saturday sent the head of the Regional Department for Culture Pavel Volk, suspected of embezzlement of at least 900 thousand rubles, under house arrest for 1 month and 28 days.


Volk was detained the day before, on April 21. He is suspected of embezzling 900 thousand rubles at the Governor's College of Socio-Cultural Technologies and Innovations, where he was the director from 2001 to 2012.  According to preliminary data, this amount has been allocated for the salary of a fictitiously employed employee for 8 years. A criminal case has been opened on the fact of theft under the article "Fraud committed on a large scale".


In 2008, the law "On Combating Corruption" was adopted. The law obliges all civil servants, officials and deputies to publish information about their income and property annually on the official websites of government bodies, state-owned companies and institutions. However, in December 2022, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in which this requirement was suspended for the period of “Special military operation”. 

How convenient!

So, The authorities of Tomsk and the region did not publish information about their income for 2022 and property, referring to the presidential decree.


Will Russia ever win/eradicate the corruption? 


I haven't seen anything about new COVID-19 outbreaks here in the US. 

However, in Russia, the newspaper Izvestia talks about a new strain of COVID-19 called "Arcturus". A surge of this strain is predicted in Russia by the end of May.


The head of Rospotrebnadzor also noted that the new strain is more contagious than its predecessors, but there is no more severe course of the disease. They predict that people will experience symptoms of ARVI. 


So, I guess my husband and I are doing right by wearing masks while grocery shopping. 


*Тomsk has 4 districts. Each district has its own court.

https://www.riatomsk.ru/article/20230423/golova-ledohoda-na-tomi-priblizhaetsya-k-granice-tomskoj-oblasti/

https://www.riatomsk.ru/article/20230423/stena-obrushilasj-nochjyu-v-zdanii-s-tremya-kafe-na-usova-v-tomske/

https://www.riatomsk.ru/article/20230420/shtamm-arktur-usilitsya-v-rf-v-konce-maya-on-umeet-obhoditj-immunitet/
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Location: Tomsk Oblast, Russia, 634033

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