Some of Russia's most strategic military bases in the Far East had their electricity supplies cut Monday and others were facing similar shutdowns due to a heavy backlog of unpaid bills.
The Russian Pacific Fleet's northeastern headquarters in the Kamchatka peninsula's capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky turned dark early Monday, the head of the local energy company Kamchatenergo said.
"We had to cut off power to the Pacific Fleet's northeastern headquarters due to arrears of 195 million rubles,"(6.4 million dollars, 7.4 million euros)," Viktor Igmatulin told AFP.
He added that following the cut, the military had temporarily found a way to reconnect its headquarters to the power grid through what he termed were illegal means, although Igmatulin failed to divulge further details.
Igmatulin stressed that Kamchatenergo technicians were about to pull the plug on them again until the company received assurances it would be paid in full.
Further south in the Vladivostok region, more military installations were facing the threat of losing their electricity supplies, local energy company Dalenergo warned.
"We will cut off power to 60 percent of airforce and air defense units in the Vladivostok area today," a Dalenergo spokesman, Mikhail Tsedrik, told AFP.
Unlike a similar shutdown on Thursday in that area, which also affected the Pacific Fleet there, Tsedrik said that strategic installations could suffer from power cuts this time.
Last week's action resulted in a commitment by fleet chiefs to resolve their debt issue, and in Dalenergo restoring power.
However, no such agreement has been possible with airforce and air defense chiefs, Tsedrik said.
Pacific Fleet, air force and air defense arrears to Dalenergo amount to nearly 250 million rubles, the compmany said.
The head of the Russian airforce is expected in Vladivostok on Tuesday to lead debt negotiations with the company, officials said.
Those power shutdowns are the latest in a wave of actions by subsidiaries of the Russian electricity giant UES, which have pulled the plug on military bases and installations across Russia over unpaid bills.
In one incident in late 2000, troops from a strategic missile base in the Ivanovo region northeast of Moscow occupied an electricity plant after power was cut off at their installation.
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov intervened amid public concern about the risks posed by military and nuclear installations left without electricity.
UES boss Anatoly Chubais subsequently ordered power stations to maintain electricity supplies to strategic army establishments even if they fail to settle their accounts.
