By Country / Russia
Moscow Prosecutors Question Chubais After Blackout
May 26, 2005
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26 May 2005 -- Anatoly Chubais, the head of Russia's energy monopoly Unified Energy Systems (EES), arrived tonight at the Moscow Prosecutor's Office for questioning about yesterday's huge power outage in the Moscow area.
Chubais had been initially due to appear at earlier today, but he arrived several hours late.
Also today, Chubais told reporters that consumers could be compensated for the losses caused by the outage: "As far as the damages caused to consumers are concerned, in this situation we can only take one position: all legally proven damages must of course be compensated and will be compensated."
EES, which runs the world's fourth-largest power network, said electricity was restored fully in Moscow by lunchtime today. The Moscow public transport system also resumed full operation today.
A substation blast paralyzed much of Moscow and the surrounding regions yesterday, stranding 20,000 people in the city's underground rail system.
Traffic-light failures also triggered a spate of road accidents.
(Reuters, ITAR-TASS, RFE/RL's Russian Service)