UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 31, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based end users owe their heat and power suppliers RUR 8.5bn in unpaid heating and electric power bills, the constituency’s Minister for Energy & Housing Utilities Nikolai Smirnov said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg.

According to Smirnov, RUR 6.6bn out of the total amount stem from the debts of end users based in the Mid-Urals.

‘Unfortunately, the debt figures keep rising; they used to go down in the summer months, but this only happened on a little scale last summer. So now that the summer’s here, we can rely on the existing federal normative acts to apply stricter measures to the non-payers, including limitations on foreign travel and seizure of their assets (including apartments),’ Smirnov said.