vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #159 / Special reports / Reading article...

Russky Island — the hospitals have no medicine, and bakeries have only a few day’s worth of flour. Ambulances don’t drive — there’s no fuel — and pension checks aren’t getting through to the elderly.

When ferries and passenger boats stopped running to Russky Island Jan. 1, residents of the Vladivostok suburb were left with the sinking sense that they were no longer a part of Russia. They are stranded by a city that refuses to subsidize the ferry system and won’t meet with port officials or island residents to come up with a solution. And the decision of the Pacific Fleet to provide limited ferry service has only created a stopgap solution.

Russky has more than 10,000 residents. The area is downright derelict; neither the Vladivostok Mayor’s Office nor the Ministry of Defense has put money toward development.

The isolation is compounded by the fact that nobody has money. Most of the residents and military personnel work on mainland Vladivostok. Thus the currently inoperative boat and ferry routes to Pospelova and Podnozhye capes were a matter of livelihood for the islanders.

Civilian and military stores have run out of food brought last year. Kindergartens have nothing to feed children, and the patients in the hospital are starving. Businessmen use occasional boats to bring in only vodka of dubious quality. The island’s bakeries have flour to last just for a few days, said Nadezhda Khasanova, chairwoman of one of the island’s village councils.

Islanders haven’t gotten newspapers and magazines since Jan. 1, and their only news comes from the TV. Telegrams, including notices of the death of relatives, can’t get through. The disposal of dead bodies has become a problem too, because there is no morgue on Russky. There is also no chance to help the seriously sick. Khasanova said they had to call for a helicopter Jan. 7 to take a pregnant woman to a Vladivostok maternity ward for delivery.

For another pregnant woman, help never came: She gave birth to a boy on a private boat from Russky Island. She hadn’t been able to get to the mainland to check into a maternity home. A report on her health was unavailaable.

Traffic on the island has come to a standstill due to a shortage of fuel for buses. In the past, the fuel was delivered weekly.

Deputy Mayor Nikolai Markovtsev sent a letter to Mikhail Robkanov, president of Vladivostok Marine Commercial Port, saying that the Mayor’s Office doesn’t plan to renew the contract for passenger conveyance with Vladmorpass for 1998 or sign a new one with the Commercial Port. Instead it says “the ship owner is required to arrange for passenger conveyance. All the responsibility for the disruption of passenger conveyance lies with you.”

The paradox is that the Mayor’s Office refuses to deal with the ship owner but demands that they not stop the service. Robkanov was not even allowed into officials’ offices for negotiations Jan. 8, although the port is a large and stable taxpayer. City officials also didn’t meet with an island delegation that day, keeping them out in the lobby for four hours.

The Mayor’s Office has launched an independent boat route to Pospelova Cape on Russky Island. But that doesn’t help the residents of other Russky villages. The boat can seat 60, whereas at least 300 want to board it.

Islanders have been using tugs fishing boats to commute. Khasanova says this makes transportation dangerous. And the fare people pay is 40 rubles one-way, while Vladmorpass charged 10 rubles round-trip.Meanwhile the port is ready to resume boat and ferry service right away if it gets a request from the city and fuel money, said Robkanov. After repairs, the fleet is ready to operate. The port proposes to start collaboration with the city from square one, but the Mayor’s Office refuses. That is why the Russky council has appealed for help to the governor and new Duma. Every day life on the island goes from bad to worse. Novik Bay has frozen, limiting the visiting vessels to those with reinforced hulls. Soon only FESCO’s small ice breakers will be able to crunch through the ice.