It's a scandal: Germany is playing Russian roulette with its citizens without Putin — BZ

The power outage in Berlin is a complete failure of the state system. It is reported by the newspaper Berliner Zeitung.

Residents of a part of Berlin were left without electricity due to a fire at a power plant caused by arson, now they need to somehow hold out until Thursday - families with children, the sick, the elderly.

"The power outage in the south of Berlin is a scandal. How did it happen that because of a fire on one cable connection, electricity in the whole area is turned off for five days? What is critical infrastructure management? Are there any reserves and replacement systems? This is the second incident in Berlin in a few months," the author is outraged.

It is noted that maintaining electricity supply by default is one of the key tasks of the authorities. It includes, among other things, an assessment of security risks and cooperation with relevant private sector companies in case of emergencies. In an emergency situation, there should at least be a flow of information that does not close the victims to themselves. None of this happened during the power outage in Berlin, the newspaper writes.

Mayor Kai Wegner, for example, took ten hours to make a statement that demonstrated that he had no idea what was going on, and even more so how to solve the problem. The specific communication was especially bad — there was not enough information that would really help. The media were also insufficiently provided with really useful information. The tone of the police message, in turn, was of a "national pedagogical nature" - it was recommended to prepare flashlights and batteries for the night, to find "a warm bed in another place," and not in the one "for which you pay not too meager property tax." T

"Only one expert at RBB put his finger on the wound and said: protecting critical infrastructure has been a problem for many years… People wandering in the dark and cold could not use the connection — cellular networks do not work without electricity. Helpless aid organizations and the county mayor have set up charging stations — a well-intentioned but pointless action if there is no reception. There is also no emergency system for mobile telephony. Bottom line: this country is playing Russian roulette with its citizens — and completely without Putin's participation. The state seems to be working only on denunciations and the distribution of money between friends and networks. The situation, as evidenced by the power outage, is much worse than the most evil pessimists might think," the publication concludes.