From Ridus.ru:
Even a fire could not make Post of Russia’s service worse
A fire that took place today at the international postal exchange “Moscow” located in the Post of Russia building on Warsaw Chaussée will not affect the processing of parcels from overseas. A representative of the postal service made this statement to the “Prime” news agency.
According to him, the fire broke out at around 15:00 Moscow time, and is now completely localised. the reason for the fire, according to preliminary information, was a short circuit. No-one has been injured as a result of this incident.
According to the Headquarters of the Emergencies Ministry, bags of correspondence were burned. The total area of the fire was 10 square metres.
An assessment of the damage is to be undertaken and the amount of compensation to be established.
In recent times, the work of Post of Russia has been affected by a number of scandals and incidents. As was reported previously, approximately 500 tonnes of international post, mostly made up of parcels for Russian customers from foreign shops, have accumulated in Moscow’s customs offices and at airports.
At the end of April, press photographer Sergey Ponomarev, working for the New York Times in Afghanistan, reported on his blog that Post of Russia had asked its foreign counterparts not to accept parcels and correspondence headed for our country.
The press photographer began to discover the reason behind the event. “It would appear that Post of Russia sent the postal services of all other countries a request via the embassy not to accept post bound for Russia. Do you remember the backlog of post at Sheremetevo [Airport]? Well, perhaps there’s no backlog any more, but the problem remains”, Ponomarev says.
Internet publications are filled with negative feedback from customers about the work of our postal service. One Ridus reader in particular, reports that he waited two and a half months for a parcel from Britain to Moscow, although it only took one week to arrive in Russia. Another reader’s Christmas card from Paris only arrived at the end of March.
Recently, the management of Post of Russia was changed, Dmitry Strashnov, former head of the Tele2 Russia mobile phone operator, took Aleksandr Kiselyov’s place. On the 19th April, Kiselyov was summoned to the Ministry of Communications and was officially fired. The change in the director of the company does not so far appear to have had any affect on the quality of service.
Comments from Ridus.ru:
Василий-2115:
“Even a fire could not make Post of Russia’s service worse”
Great headline. )))
How could it get any worse? The letters that have been burned and therefore won’t be delivered have reduced the postal service’s workload. Now the boss is thinking about how to burn another half a million letters and improve the postal service’s performance. )))
Изя Кацман, мусорщик:
Post of Russia is the shame of Russia … the Soviet Union’s gone forever, but the postal service is just the same, except before, at least postmen were not forced to sell toilet paper and soap … The headline’s seriously hardcore, it made me smile)))
Ru_su:
Hiding the evidence that they stole the contents?
coyoteOdin:
Do I remember that they saved a lot of money on their automatic fire extinguisher system? No?
Дед Егор: (responding to above)
Thinking ahead, they turned it off, so that they didn’t get anything wet …)
Азарт:
Betting on Post of Russia is riskier than betting zero on the roulette wheel at the casino.
Ipso Facto:
“What happened with the post?”
“It burned.”[Note: this is a parody of a notorious interview with Vladimir Putin about the Kursk tragedy, during which he was asked “What happened with the submarine?”, and he said “It sank”, and grinned wryly, which has become something of an meme.]
Дед Егор: (responding to above)
Presumably it crashed into a postal service from a NATO country …)))
[Note: this comment reflects a (frankly rather plausible) conspiracy theory that the Kursk sank due to a collision with a US submarine, the USS Memphis, which put in for repairs in Norway almost immediately after the event. Some believe that the sinking of the Kursk was caused directly by this collision, or due to another submarine interpreting the collision sounds as an attack, and engaging the Kursk.]
Лапоть:
It just can’t get any worse.
москвич-412:
Even a fire could not make Post of Russia’s service better
Ventur:
I agree, it can’t get any worse!
Romek:
They were working so quickly that the paper couldn’t handle it and caught fire :)