Translated material
For debts
Power engineers of Primorye turned off television and radio broadcasting
Vladivostok housewives were unable to watch the next episode of “Tower of Babel” on Tuesday morning. At 10.30 local time, the television screens suddenly went dark. OJSC Dalenergo disconnected the television transmission tower and the Azimuth station, which belong to the Primorye Regional Television and Radio Transmission Center (KTRPC), from the power supply.According to KTRPC director Dmitry Volf, representatives of the energy company came to the center premises at the beginning of the working day. They shut down and sealed the substation that supplies the transmitters with electricity. The press service of OJSC Dalenergo told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostei newspaper that the reason for such actions was the debt to the power engineers of the Primorye branch of VGTRK, which includes the transmission center.
The amount of debt is 20 million rubles, and until yesterday Dalenergo did not receive any guarantees of the return of this amount from local radio and television. The arbitration court made a decision to recover money from VGTRK based on the claim of Primorye power engineers a year ago, but it was not possible to achieve its implementation. The local branch of the state television and radio company is included in the list of strategic objects that cannot be disconnected from electricity under any circumstances, and the energy sector does not know any other ways to influence debtors.
Dalenergo refuses to comment on the legality of yesterday’s action. As a result of the blackout of transmitters in Primorye, the broadcasting of all central and local television channels, regional wire radio and two commercial radio stations operating in the FM band stopped. “If an emergency situation arose in the region, it would be impossible to notify the population about the threat on radio and television, as prescribed by civil defense rules,” said a representative of the regional department for civil defense and emergency situations, who wished to remain anonymous. “Dalenergo’s actions have jeopardized security interests.”
Fortunately, nothing like that happened this time. The management of the Primorsky branch of VGTRK agreed with the Dalenergo administration in two hours on the procedure for repaying debts. 20 million rubles must be transferred to the energy company within a week. Otherwise, power engineers threaten to repeat the shutdown of the KTRPC for a longer period.