State ownership is a way to solve the problems in the public utilities sector, according to Vyacheslav Volodin

The issues affecting Russia’s public utilities sector can be solved by transferring heating networks and power generation to state ownership, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Tuesday.

The statement comes as recent record-breaking cold temperatures caused serious power disruptions in some Russian regions during the holiday season.

According to Volodin, cited by the Duma press service, a working group could be created to cope with the problems in the sector.

“Let us take this issue under control, because we must admit that generating capacities of thermal power plants and state district power plants are not always at the proper level,” Volodin was quoted as saying. “Those who privatized the capacities in the 1990s receive profits, but do not think that modernization of generating capacities is necessary,” he argued.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced recently that the government will continue modernizing the public utilities sector.

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