Shortened not like a child – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

On November 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with members of the government, at which Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin told how the Crimean Bridge was being raised from its knees, and two key ministers plunged into darkness at such a moment, which was on purpose, the Kommersant special correspondent believes. Andrey Kolesnikov, you can’t think of anything like that.

The meeting with members of the government was postponed a couple of times the next day and took place when, one might say, it was not expected: the country, for which such meetings had not been key before, in the evening of this day, all the more gathered for the holidays.

But before that, apparently, it was necessary to talk with the members of the government about the fact that it can no longer be postponed. Mr. Putin asked Marat Khusnullin to report on the Crimean bridge. From the very beginning, the damage did not seem trifling, although it did not completely paralyze the railway and automobile traffic.

But even before that, the president conveyed to his colleagues “greetings from Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich Berdimuhamedov (the speaker of the country’s parliament, as well as the cult, albeit former president of Turkmenistan, worthy father of his son, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov.— A.K.)”, which we just said goodbye to. I presented him with our state order “For Merit to the Fatherland” IV degree, referring to his “significant contribution to the development of interstate relations.”

Vladimir Putin did not say anything about the fact that he received two horses from Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and that it was a birthday present, albeit belatedly.

From Turkmenistan, the President of Turkmenistan met with Vladimir Putin within the framework of an extremely informal CIS summit, and then, in Astana, too. And here was something else. Very personal. Horses.

Then, after a lyrical message from Vladimir Putin, Marat Khusnullin spoke at the meeting.

“To date,” he reported, “work has already been completed to strengthen the span structures and repair the supports of the left undestroyed side of the bridge.

This does not mean that there is a left destroyed side and a left undestroyed one, right?

“Four spans of this side of the bridge structures were damaged and deformed, and we will have to replace them with new ones,” Marat Khusnullin reported. on this side of the bridge in the normal mode with a 100% inspection of vehicles and constant monitoring, which is carried out by specialized organizations around the clock.

In the report of Marat Khusnullin, the details were most interesting, since it was them that we had been deprived of all this time. And he did not skimp on them:

– In order to speed up the restoration of the bridge, it was decided to combine the technological processes for the restoration of work in both directions of the bridge. For the right, destroyed part, 1218 tons of metal structures were manufactured and delivered in record time from three factories in the country: these are Tyumen, Voronezh, Kurgan. And I want to say, Vladimir Vladimirovich, that they made and delivered so quickly! .. I want to thank both the heads of the companies and the regions that manually controlled around the clock how the work was going, and the traffic police, which accompanied all these cars as soon as possible!

Marat Khusnullin, it seems, himself was amazed at such a speed. He may not be used to the fact that all these people can work for us like that. But after all, time of war – this is how it should be treated.

Yesterday they blew up, today they brought the structures, tomorrow they blew them up again… God forbid, of course. But if anything, we will bring it back and install it. And again.

– Of these 1218 tons, 925 tons have already been assembled on site in the form of specific span products. And we are already starting from November 5 to November 10, the installation of new superstructures … In general, I note that 8 out of the 25 days since the terrorist attack were storms, but despite this, we keep to the schedule, although we could not work all the days: floating cranes they didn’t always work, but on the whole the schedule is kept,” the vice-premier continued.

In fact, the bridge is being restored, it seems, faster than it was built.

– We plan to start traffic on both lanes on the right side of the bridge on December 5 – on one lane, on December 20 – completely, on the other. Next, we will begin work on dismantling the spans of the left, less affected side of the bridge and plan to complete it by March 30 as well. We will have work there that does not affect the movement: technical, local treatment and others … We will finish them on July 1, promised Marat Khusnullin.

It turned out that there were and still are big problems with the passage on the bridge. But they remain smaller than they were.

— The measures taken, — said the Vice-premier, — allowed to reduce the number of trucks in park-and-ride parking lots. So, if in the Krasnodar Territory on October 13 we had 1,100 vehicles, today at seven in the morning we had only 150 vehicles left. And the waiting time, which was from three to seven days, today we have no more than three days. The task is to reduce this period even more so that during the day all cars can either cross the crossing or cross the ferry. In total, today we have 400 vehicles waiting, of which 150 are in the Krasnodar Territory, 94 trucks in the Rostov Region are waiting to pass along the new route, and 156 from the Republic of Crimea.

For the first time, the picture of the consequences was thus presented in a more or less complete form.

– As for the railway part of the bridge, it carries out reverse movement along the first track, – added Marat Khusnullin. – All trains follow the schedule, there are no delays. At present, the terms of reference for the design of the restoration of the second railway track have been approved. It will also require the replacement of two span structures.

The last remark was obvious: everyone who saw what the bridge looked like after the explosion, and everyone saw it, could say the same thing.

— I want to note that Roszheldor (Federal Agency for Railway Transport.— “b”) and the contractor presented a schedule of work to launch traffic on the second track by September 15, 2023,” finished Marat Khusnullin.

And these dates indicated that the bridge was badly damaged. With the current attention to it, with the finances and forces that have been attracted, movement along the second path will begin only almost a year later.

– But we, Vladimir Vladimirovich, ask for more time, after all, we will look at the commission again. We believe that this work needs to be completed as soon as possible. Let’s work for a few days. I’ll probably go back and look again. We will make the final decision in order to accelerate,” Mr. Khusnullin promised.

It is obvious that he understands: it is this period that looks pessimistic.

Irek Fayzullin, Minister of Construction and Housing and Utilities, reported on the preparations for winter, which has already arrived almost everywhere, and Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov began his report.

— The preparation of electric power industry entities for work in the autumn-winter period has been completed, meetings of the government commission for ensuring the security of power supply have been held in all federal districts and also in new territories … In general, the Russian energy system has the necessary margin of safety, a sufficient reserve of generating and network capacity, which ensures the balance reliability of the Russian energy system,” said Nikolai Shulginov.

And now he has to remember all these life-affirming words.

Remember and remember.

For just at the moment when he was saying them all, in several Moscow City towers at once turned off electricity.

No, well, it just defiantly happened! It’s just as bad. Evacuations were taking place in the towers, people were stuck in elevators asking for help… Finally, the lights treacherously turned off in the offices of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov and Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, who took part in a video conference call (VKS ).

Mr. Putin could not fail to notice this: before his eyes, the window in which Mr. Reshetnikov had been shining until now went out, and then Mr. Manturov also faded.

It is known that the offices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Economic Development are located in City.

“Energy companies are provided with an emergency supply of materials, equipment, diesel generators…” continued Nikolai Shulginov.

The windows next to him on the screen, which glowed in front of the president, were extinguished, as if the people in these windows decided that maybe they should go to bed already.

At the same time, we must pay tribute to the special equipment, the Aerospace Forces itself worked, and if you look closely, you could see in the dark helplessly looking around and still courageously taking part in the meeting of the two ministers to the end. Yes, in the conditions of such a harmonious system of energy security with its inviolable emergency supplies and diesel generators that collapsed before everyone’s eyes, they decided everything for themselves.

After Nikolai Shulginov, Alexander Kozlov, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, spoke, who simply shone on the screen from everything that overwhelmed him. And what should have overwhelmed him, first of all, was the fact that the electricity in his office had not yet turned off.

Another hitch was that it was Maxim Reshetnikov who should be next. He had a keynote speech on the topic of the meeting: investment support tools in the current environment.

At this point, it seems, it should have become clear to everyone: they will have to invest primarily in energy security and directly in diesel generators.

But how would he get out of the situation on the air – that’s the question.

Not just out of position. From darkness.

Just lucky: the light was given right before the report.

And Maxim Reshetnikov came out of the darkness, squinting a little out of habit.

“I hope that the repair work that is being carried out in your complex will not prevent you from making a report,” Mr. Putin remarked with relief.

He tried to explain the situation and save the day. Indeed, repair work was already underway in the tower – only not planned, as one might assume after these words, but emergency.

On the one hand, yes, it was inconvenient.

On the other hand, don’t get used to it.