[SomeoneFromCA]

What you describe is not normal today (unless we are talking about some Mukhosransk type of cities), and certainly was not normal in USSR, which kept civil infrastructure in a good shape.

As someone who is currently living in Central Asia, yes I do have no water for two weeks a year, they switch it off for "maintenance". However all last 5+ years, I had water through summer, with only occasional failures. We did have no heating one year, but water was all the time present.

[throwaway290]

Sure, they keep water hot in select cities, and the rest is Mukhosransk territory that doesn't matter. You could be from Moscow with that logic!

Respectfully you have no idea, planned hot water downtime in summer is reality for most cities in Russia (including SPb with official maximum length of two weeks), don't try to paint it look better than the mess it is.

Other post-Soviet countries probably do better, especially in Europe, but I have no info

[SomeoneFromCA]

have you read the original post?

> Old Soviet style communities get hot water from central plants, mainly used for heating but also for showers, so when winter is over, they shutdown the heating plants for the season and no hot water at all

Because if you reread it, you'll get the ridiculousness of that claim. So what you saying that situation in ex-USSR is such that there is only hot water during the winter. This is ridiculous, even taking into account grievances you have about Russian infrastructure.