Siberian city says no to ‘festive tree’

● An expensive Christmas tree installed in the centre of an industrial Siberian city has been ridiculed online and on national media as a symbol of corruption, though authorities defended the hi-tech purchase.

The 25m artificial tree in Kemerovo, a city surrounded by coal mines, cost 18-million rubles (about R4.1m) — three times more than the country’s main tree installed in the Kremlin.

Russian comedian Ivan Urgant ridiculed the Kemerovo tree as having “very expensive ornaments — real rabbits, bears, cars and planes”, and hinted at corruption in the city hall. The city made national headlines last winter when residents reported seeing black snow due to large amounts of coal dust, while a town nearby covered a snow hill used for sledding with white paint to hide the coal residue.

“Here people don’t live, they survive. And they are spending 18-million on a tree!” local resident Roman Khabibulin wrote on social network VK.

Online commentators suggested that authorities direct the money towards children with cancer or subsidised housing instead.

Kemerovo’s mayor defended the tree, saying it was a “mid-range” technological tree that would replace an old tree which became too expensive to repair.

Communist Party spokesperson Alexander Yushchenko said the tree was “just an element of the whole system, our national problem, corruption”.

Russians put up trees to celebrate New Year, which is the country’s biggest holiday of the year and sees cities spending significant sums on decorations and fireworks. Celebration of the Russian Orthodox Christmas, which falls on January 7, was discouraged during the Soviet era and remains less popular than New Year.