Moscow pours money into sub-zero far east region

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) -- Moscow on Tuesday relented in a war of words with regional bosses in its freezing far eastern Primorsk province and rushed money to provide heat to thousands of people shivering in sub-zero temperatures.

The move followed several days of bitter recriminations between the Kremlin and the regional governor over who was responsible for the collapse of the far-flung territory's creaking infrastructure and a lack of funds to buy heating fuel.

While accusations flew, people in small towns and villages in the region bordering China and North Korea bundled themselves up in clothes at home and slept under layers of blankets as frozen water and sewage pipes burst around them.

RIA news agency quoted the spokesman for Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin as saying the ministry was opening two credit lines to Primorsk worth a total of some $6 million and sending an additional $10 million in urgent financing.

Moscow also dispatched Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov to the region with orders to assess what was happening and who was to blame.

"We will sort everything out at the site and the conclusions will be in my report to the president," Klebanov told reporters on arrival in Vladivostok. He later also visited the headquarters of Russia's vast Pacific Fleet.

Pictures of heavily muffled people trembling in their flats in Primorsk hit television screens about two weeks ago and an angry President Vladimir Putin called the situation an "utter disgrace."

But he said Moscow was not responsible for the suffering, putting the blame squarely on the regional administration and making clear that no new funds would be forthcoming.

The governor, Yevgeny Nazdratenko, returned the blow, saying the root of the problem was a huge debt run up by Moscow and its unwillingness to act to curb rocketing energy prices.

On Tuesday, the regional Emergencies Ministry said the situation in the northern Kavalerovo district was critical, with temperatures in the homes of some 15,000 local residents never exceeding three to four degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit).

Outside, the temperature was minus 27 Celsius (minus 17 Fahrenheit), it said.

"There is only enough heating oil to run for two days. A disaster may happen then," a spokesman for the ministry's Primorsk outlet said by telephone, referring to the fact that frozen water could start bursting pipes.

Residents of Kavalerovo, who have already appealed for help to local authorities and Moscow, on Monday wrote a letter to Russia's Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II, asking him to step in.

Governor Nazdratenko poured scorn over the move. Russian television showed him saying Alexiy was unlikely to give the freezing people anything more than spiritual warmth.

Heating problems, aggravated by bouts of particularly nasty weather, also persist in other parts of the region, including the regional capital Vladivostok.

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