A real winter reigned in Baku from January 22nd to 28th, which means we had snow and ice. The temperature at night didn't rise higher than minus 6 degrees. Though it was enough for the rhythm of normal life in Baku, it become unrecognizable.

Many heads of municipal authorities in a few conversations with journalists were trying to explain the paralyzed system of civil service saying that winter weather came too unexpectedly. Synoptics stated that the last time Baku saw such winter in 1972. But sure it's just impossible to announce to the whole nation on January 23 that winter has come too unexpectedly. If it happened in October or November such claims would be more in place.

However the municipal authorities have demonstrated again that they are completely unready for cold weather and snow. In fact the executive power of Baku left the citizens one-on-one with the element of nature.
The head Municipal Mayor, Hajibala Abutalibov had stated several times that he's no longer going to use sand or salt during snowfalls, because, in his opinion, these methods damage the asphalt. By the way, the head of Municipal Services stayed faithful to his promise. The only place where the cleaning work was held is the road that the president takes to work.

By the order of the minister of education lessons at secondary schools were cancelled, since 80% of schools do not get the heating.

Let us mention, since 1999, the president of Azerbaijan every year has consultations on getting ready for the fall-winter seasons. Local officials always report to the head of the government that everything will be prepared so citizens won't have any problems. Yet, the past events have shown that local officials are not interested in bringing to life the discussed ideas. Mere citizens of the capital during those freezing days couldn't get gas in their apartments, the heating systems were inactive, and all this is happening in the country that is going to supply all Europe with energy resources (we should mark that the energy supply of the capital was functioning with no stoppage because of the help of Turkish energy distributing company Barmek.)