Following heating outages in Klimovsk, Russia, investigators have arrested three individuals over the breakdown that has left regional officials working to restore services, leading to scrutiny from the Kremlin. The outages were attributed to failures at a boiler plant owned by a private ammunition factory, leading to the arrest of the heads of the heating plant and the factory on suspicion of providing unsafe services.

Additionally, the deputy head of the local administration in Podolsk was detained for allegedly certifying the heating plant as adequate for winter despite knowing about defects that needed to be fixed. President Vladimir Putin has been involved in discussions with regional officials to address the situation, and the local authorities are taking over the boiler plant and planning to modernize and restaff it. The state arms corporation Rostec has also expressed readiness to take control of the factory if nationalization becomes necessary.

The heating failure has come at an awkward time for the authorities as Putin is gearing up for a presidential election in March, where voters are seeking assurances about the maintenance of public services despite the costs of the war in Ukraine. While Putin's victory is not in doubt, the campaign offers an opportunity for opposition leaders to connect with voters and highlight problems in the country that they attribute to his 24-year rule. The unusually harsh winter in Moscow and the surrounding region has added to the urgency of resolving the heating outages, with temperatures reaching -8 Celsius in Klimovsk.