Utility bill payment delayers: Putin will ransom Fido

[emad]

Things must be getting pretty desperate for Mad Vlad Putin.... The UK's BBC reorts that:

If you live in Russia's Far East and don't pay your electricity bills on time, you would be well advised to keep a close eye on your pets.
The local electricity company is threatening to take them hostage in order to force consumers to pay up. Cash-strapped utility companies in the former Soviet Union have tried numerous desperate tactics - from naming-and-shaming non-payers to pulling the plug on entire tower blocks - but most did not work. Utility managers say Russians simply don't treat their electricity or water bills as a spending priority. .....

This is exactly the category that the local electricity company in Vladivostok, on Russia's Pacific coast, wants to hit hard, Russian TV reports. "We will take their nearest and dearest - their pets," says Dalenergo chief Nikolai Tkachev, whose company is owed $10m.

Some pets are too large to confiscate easily, let alone house
"And let a dad explain to his daughter why their beloved moggie was taken away." The company would then hold the pets in detention until their owners stump up. If they don't, it will sell them to the highest bidder.

<snip>

More:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3159182.stm


If it was me, I'd lure next door's goddawful flatulent, incontinent, slobbering shitzu, tie it to the garbage bunker in the garden, and wait for the power company to come round with a pet abduction warrant....

[FDRrocks]

1. Water and Electric not a priority?

Wow, such a different culture. Mad Vlad Ilyich was so excited to get Russia electrified too :(

And taking thier pets hostage? Eeek. I was relieved, I thought it was going to be some godfather-type stuff. That is still horrible

[htuttle]

2. Well, that's pretty horrible. I'd like to see them confiscate a Doberman..

However, it's not 'Putin' as your headline describes -- it's a private electric company named 'Dalenergo', a division of Unified Energy Systems of Russia.

Sounds like the parent company stopped the idea. From the last paragraph:

Vladivostok pets have been spared for the time being as Dalenergo's parent company, Unified Energy Systems, quickly intervened to disown the pet-snatching plan.

"Dalenergo will not take away Vladivostok residents' four-footed friends," it said in a statement.

Those crazy Russian capitalists -- they'll try anything once!
BTW, I've always pictured the typical 'New Russian Capitalist' as something close to 'Uncle Enzo' of 'Uncle Enzo's Pizza' from the novel Snowcrash. Stories like this don't help me to avoid holding onto that stereotype.