Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:03The coal rush attracts hundreds of people to this business in the district. In
00:00:07the cold season, work in the coal mines of Karagyach is carried out
00:00:10around the clock.
00:00:13If we don't work here, it will be hard for people in the city.
00:00:28Here, roughly speaking, we have 22 floors of
00:00:32mines underground for gold mining since tsarist times.
00:00:36There's a whole city underground, you could say. That is, the lower floors are all
00:00:39flooded, the upper ones are open. You can enter on one mountain, walk several kilometers
00:00:43underground, well, through these mines, and exit on another mountain.
00:00:46That is, there's an underground city. All
00:00:50of this was developed and mined
00:00:54since some 1800s year.
00:01:02What it is famous for is that here, at
00:01:05a high altitude, snow falls early and melts
00:01:09late, and accordingly, it's very good for snowboarding
00:01:12and skiing, that is, freeride. Also
00:01:15snowmobiling. The snow here falls from 2
00:01:18meters and by the end of the season reaches up to 10
00:01:22meters.
00:01:25Sometimes even a snow groomer cannot
00:01:28climb up because of the large
00:01:32volume of snow. People come from all over Russia,
00:01:35starting from Moscow to Vladivostok, and
00:01:39even when the borders were open, Finns
00:01:42came.
00:01:50In every mountain there are workings where
00:01:53there is a high concentration of gold. Those passages are blocked, but
00:01:56there are still open shafts that...
00:02:00you can even go through,
00:02:03but it's kind of dangerous because the wood
00:02:07has probably weakened.
00:02:10Someone goes, quietly looks, observes,
00:02:13extracts, maybe even.
00:02:17I used to live 150 km
00:02:20from here, in the city of Sharifovo,
00:02:24but it just so happened that 3 years ago
00:02:28I came here to work.
00:02:30I stayed, took my parents with me. The salary
00:02:34is good, the boss never, as they say,
00:02:37offends. Our Anatoly even
00:02:39encourages us, and everything is
00:02:42great. As for the locals, well, he worked
00:02:46for nuts for a season, earned his penny, but it's good for him, he sits at
00:02:50home, as if here people
00:02:53live not by money, but by the gifts
00:02:57of nature. We have, as they say, everything. We
00:03:01earned enough, whoever wants to earns,
00:03:04goes to work, earns extra, repairs
00:03:07snowmobiles, works in hotels.
00:03:10Whoever doesn't want to earns from the taiga - berries,
00:03:14mushrooms, nuts. That is, they have seasonal work, and in winter
00:03:18they just rest. Well, that is, they drink. Well, you could say
00:03:22that.
00:03:42Life was bustling in these houses. Once upon a time, it was a full
00:03:45house. It was impossible to get an apartment
00:03:48in these houses. We survive, not
00:03:51live. In winter
00:03:54it's cold, we heat stoves.
00:03:57The roofs are all leaky. Everything
00:04:00is crumbling. Well, actually, I have lived here in this apartment for 30 years
00:04:04and for over 30 years no repairs have ever
00:04:07been done. It's cold here, we have a wall on
00:04:10the street, a hole. We foamed it up, and
00:04:13we live on. We just don't want to pay for someone else's apartment, so
00:04:17we live, we survive here. And
00:04:20the rest of the houses, all the people have moved out and rent
00:04:23housing, apartments. They promised this year, but
00:04:27it didn't work out for them, I don't know when now.
00:04:30They promise, promises, only promises.
00:04:33обещания,
00:04:36Next year, next year, next year,
00:04:39next year. That's it. We receive
00:04:42our pension. Well, it's enough for life, 11,700.
00:04:46We try to earn extra somewhere, well, I'm in
00:04:50the hospital, hospital, resort. I earn extra. I
00:04:53clear snow. What, they paid me a penny, good. Well,
00:04:57they pay a thousand, it's not enough.
00:05:00Everyone worked in the mine, it was
00:05:03very prestigious to work in the mine,
00:05:06it was generally good.
00:05:09Earnings were, well, for those times, of course. Well,
00:05:13my husband and I had
00:05:16800 rubles a month. And I worked in the
00:05:19compressor room, meaning they supplied air to
00:05:23the mine for the machines to work. In
00:05:26ninety-eighth, the mine was officially closed.
00:05:29In ninety-fourth, they already started delaying
00:05:33salaries for many months. In ninety-
00:05:37sixth, we practically didn't work anymore, we just
00:05:40went on duty, well, sometimes they turned
00:05:43on the air there or
00:05:46asked to pump out water or something. Well, in short, that's
00:05:50how it was until ninety-eighth. In ninety-eighth, it was
00:05:54officially closed. Well, whoever could, left.
00:05:57Well, the management naturally all
00:06:00left, not one remained
00:06:02here.
00:06:04But we, simple workers, remained here,
00:06:07lived, survived, went,
00:06:11there prospectors worked. We went there, washed
00:06:14gold, surrendered it, that's how
00:06:17we fed ourselves. The police, as they do now, caught
00:06:20and punished,
00:06:22but we still went, because we wanted to eat, and
00:06:26our children wanted to eat. It happened
00:06:30differently.
00:06:32Sometimes plenty, sometimes little. This is not gold, it's not like
00:06:36you just go and take it. You had to
00:06:39mine it, you had to wash it. Well, we collected
00:06:43soil with a pan, poured it into the pan and washed it
00:06:46by hand.
00:06:49We mined gold, so people came to us,
00:06:53bought gold. Outsiders. We
00:06:56washed as much as we could, they came,
00:07:00we sold it. That's it, they
00:07:03left, we were happy with the money, went to
00:07:06the store. Even back then, that money
00:07:10was not much. But
00:07:13we still survived, everyone wanted to eat. Back then, remember,
00:07:17pensions were not paid, and child benefits were not
00:07:20paid. But you
00:07:22wanted to eat. You wouldn't get far on just potatoes. We still
00:07:26planted vegetable gardens. Well, potatoes are
00:07:30potatoes. There were severe raids, but
00:07:33we tried somehow,
00:07:36you can go far into the taiga through the forest,
00:07:40you can escape. Or
00:07:42we ran away. My foreman was
00:07:45crushed during the prospecting. Well, we considered this prospecting, we
00:07:49already went as foremen. Many people,
00:07:53probably six or seven, were crushed during
00:07:56this period, since the mine was already closed. We already
00:08:00worked, so to speak, illegally. Well,
00:08:03for example, this ceiling, it's called the roof in the mine. And
00:08:05the roof can be
00:08:09different, it can be strong, such a monolithic one, it won't fall, but sometimes...
00:08:13it falls. Well, you blocked it and there you check
00:08:16with a rock hammer, you knock. If it rings with a dull sound,
00:08:20not a clear one, it means it
00:08:23will fall someday. Well, when they started prospecting, there was no
00:08:27control anymore. Everyone was on their own.
00:08:30You found gold,
00:08:32you went there, and nothing else mattered. And
00:08:36it crushed people,
00:08:37it crushed people.
00:08:40There are many in the mine, us and...
00:09:12How many of them are being built here? 11 have already been built. What kind of
00:09:16work is there for people? They need prospects,
00:09:19they need experience. Here, in one boiler room,
00:09:22experience counts, nowhere else does experience
00:09:24count. In the village council, an old woman guards,
00:09:28there experience counts. But in hotels, experience doesn't
00:09:31count. Today I came, they need me. Tomorrow
00:09:35they don't need me at this hotel. In short, it's based on
00:09:38demand. If a person is needed, they come. If not, they don't. Well, there
00:10:13I'll tell you directly, honestly, one person just
00:10:16froze to death, they buried him two days
00:10:19ago.
00:10:21He already had delirium tremens enough to kill him.
00:10:25Just before that, another one here,
00:10:28Ivanov also
00:10:31died of epilepsy. He drank to such an extent that
00:10:34epilepsy struck him down. He struggled, struggled,
00:10:38died.
00:10:41He was also buried somewhere like a pauper, I don't know, but he was needed by
00:10:44no one, such
00:10:46alcoholics.
00:10:48People from here, yes, those who have the opportunity leave, mostly
00:10:52young people. Soon no one will be left to study.
00:10:55Maybe I had the opportunity to leave, but I don't
00:10:58want to, I don't want this city bustle, I don't want it.
00:11:02And I've been going for the second season to work
00:11:05in the boiler room, while I'm still moving.
00:11:08In 5 days I will be 70
00:11:11years old.
00:11:20me that
00:11:24what?
00:11:26We dismantle, we break, we build,
00:11:30what is unsuitable, goes into the
00:11:32stove. Well, at least, there's no
00:11:35settlement. There was
00:11:38a settlement, everywhere there.
00:11:41там,
00:11:43Nothing is left
00:11:45here. Everything was cut for firewood, everything
00:11:49burned down. The school worked, there was a kindergarten,
00:11:53a nursery. Everything, a bakery,
00:11:57there were shops. Here all the residents lived everywhere,
00:12:01all the houses were here, everything
00:12:04was built up. Look at what
00:12:07our large village has
00:12:09turned into, a lively working settlement turned
00:12:12into just ruins.
00:12:16Of course it was a shame, there was work,
00:12:20production, gold was mined,
00:12:23a factory.
00:12:55business is such a rip-off, nothing like that. Private
00:12:58business, why is it developing? It only develops itself, I think
00:13:02so. So,
00:13:05it was the eighties, we were advised to come
00:13:08here because in the eighties all products were
00:13:11here, all the scarce goods, when there was
00:13:15nothing left in the cities. My husband and I came with our eldest
00:13:18son and immediately took a two-room
00:13:20apartment, while in the city we lived in a barrack in one
00:13:24room. We were very happy, the salary
00:13:28was good, until the nineties we lived very
00:13:31well, salaries were good, everything. Then
00:13:34they went bankrupt, we were left with nothing. Whoever could,
00:13:37left, everyone scattered. Well, we are old-timers now, we
00:13:41live on pension, this is our comfortable house. There's nothing to leave with, you need to
00:13:44go somewhere, live somewhere. We have an apartment here, there are no
00:13:48other savings. But the bad thing is there are no
00:13:52doctors in the district, only in Abakan, so we have to go to Abakan. Well,
00:13:55my husband and I go to Krasnoyarsk, our daughter lives there,
00:13:58she got married. 500 km to Krasnoyarsk,
00:14:01400 to Abakan. Recently, my husband
00:14:05and I went, I examined him, he has lung problems,
00:14:08silicosis, as an occupational disease, his lungs are filled with
00:14:12sand. He was a miner for me.
00:14:15был,
00:14:20We have no doctors or paramedics in the village. We have two nurses
00:14:23working. First of all, there are many vacationers in the mountains,
00:14:26and all sorts of fractures happen. They come down from
00:14:29the mountains, we provide aid and take them to the central district hospital, 100
00:14:33km away. We provide aid to everyone
00:14:37at home, in any case. If a blizzard starts, a strong
00:14:40blizzard, you can't reach the houses, grandmas can't
00:14:43reach the hospital, if it blows
00:14:46hard. Therefore, they call
00:14:49us home. Both frosts and blizzards, what can
00:14:53I say? They get used to it, we're used to it. For us, all this
00:14:57is already... For our settlement, the most important thing is still the pharmacy, without it
00:15:00it's impossible here, 100 km. Not everyone has
00:15:03the opportunity to go to the center to buy medicines. Our
00:15:07buses run rarely, only twice a week. You won't go to the center just for
00:15:11medicine. At any moment, a person comes, takes
00:15:15medicine. All the most necessary life-saving things are there.
00:15:18Listen, well, it's awkward, it's awkward, but still,
00:15:21I'll ask, do you have anything for your butt?
00:15:39I caught a slight cold. Well, back or what? Not
00:15:42butt. I'm telling you directly,
00:15:45butt.
00:15:46Asshole.
00:15:50Okay, wait, sit down now, I need to make a call.
00:15:53Let's do it tomorrow. I came in. Well, let's
00:15:57do it today. An ultrasound is going on now. Well, his will grow
00:16:00tomorrow already.
00:16:04Here, something for a cold. Powders? Do you want some? 150
00:16:1460 708
00:16:17Take it. Uh-huh.
00:16:21So, you, Pasha, have you given blood?
00:16:24No, I haven't given it yet. Yes, have you eaten today?
00:16:28Eaten? No, I haven't eaten yet.
00:16:31Uh-huh. And you want to kill my blood now?
00:16:34Pasha, you need to take them every day, understand?
00:17:07Without sewage, how do they manage? Today
00:17:11we'll be diving again.
00:17:13Well, that's in case someone
00:17:17injured or tore something, we need to stitch them up.
00:17:21We have these
00:17:22kits bought.
00:17:25We go to our local hospital, because
00:17:29they don't have them. We give
00:17:32the girls
00:17:35such a kit. Here
00:17:39are the threads. For 7 years we have been fully working like
00:17:43this, this is the eighth year. Guest houses, we have three of them.
00:17:46We have snow groomers, snowmobiles for rent. When you're in the
00:17:50rental business, you have to
00:17:52repair the equipment and
00:17:56check it to make sure that nothing was
00:18:00missed.
00:18:03You have to keep an eye on the oil, preferably the tank should always be
00:18:06full. Initially, I had about three serious lawsuits. That is, just
00:18:10about a year and a half ago, I only
00:18:13just covered all that, settled up.
00:18:17It was noticeably difficult. There are probably no more locals here, because
00:18:21all the other motels are people who came from
00:18:24big cities. That is, people invested money,
00:18:27built, hired people, an administrator, and it
00:18:30functions. Well, they mainly work only
00:18:34during the season, but we work all year round.
00:18:38We clear the village itself with our snow groomers, all the snow. That is, if
00:18:42before it wasn't cleared at all, you could drive to the beginning of the village and walk
00:18:46home, there were snowdrifts everywhere. That is, this is a big
00:18:48plus for the locals, for the village. This is already a question for the
00:18:52authorities, as they seem to shout, saying they want
00:18:56to see some kind of ski resort, but for that you need
00:18:59to build a road too. We still don't have sewage treatment plants in
00:19:02the village. Locals are used to working on
00:19:06gold, on...rivers or something related to that, and for them this topic of tourism
00:19:10is somehow generally unclear. The main mass of people,
00:19:13capable workers, have left. Over 400
00:19:17people remain. Well, naturally, these are drinking people,
00:19:21those who have nowhere to go, or something else, and you won't
00:19:24make them work with anything. That is, such a contingent
00:19:28remained that, well, those who
00:19:31work, they work, they go to shifts, they do something, they
00:19:34run shops, something else. Well, they try.
00:19:38Those who don't want to work, they stayed, and you
00:19:41won't make them. That is, if you hire
00:19:44them, they work a day or two, ask for an advance with tears,
00:19:48and disappear. That is, they just won't come, you yourself will go out in the morning and do their
00:19:51work, then in 2 days he will call you, oh he says, I'm ready
00:19:55to work again there, well, that's
00:19:58probably our problem after the nineties all over
00:20:02Russia, this is the same here.
00:20:05This is also hard work for... Don't even talk about it. Here, even for
00:20:09the guys to be tour guides, they need to have an approach to each
00:20:12tourist. And different people come, it's not two or three people who came,
00:20:16new ones come every time. So they went with
00:20:20people, well, a group for 3 days, they worked with these people.
00:20:24Everything seemed fine. Another group came, you need to adjust to other people too. If
00:20:27now one, second, third, fourth, fifth, they will come to you like that and make their own
00:20:31demands, ask "do this for me, do that for me, this," when
00:20:35you, and then you end up being torn apart.
00:20:38You are just one person, you can't be torn into three pieces.
00:20:42This happens constantly every day,
00:20:45this cycle, it takes away your personal
00:20:48life. You live for other
00:20:51people. That's why you leave. I worked
00:20:5510 years in tourism, I've had enough of it. I want
00:20:59a break from tourism. I needed work experience as a
00:21:02land surveyor. I came here to
00:21:06gain some experience, but
00:21:09I am not working in that field at the moment. I left
00:21:12the administration.
00:21:14Now I work in a closed club. We have one here in
00:21:18Priiskovy. A cultural center, whose
00:21:22building has been closed since eighteen due to being dilapidated.
00:21:26We hold some events
00:21:29outdoors. But right now,
00:21:33they provide us with the administration building. Well, there are
00:21:37few children because there are no young people here. 45
00:21:40people attend school. In the tenth grade, there are two people. The largest class
00:21:44is the second grade, I think there are six or nine
00:21:47people. Small classes. Well, I don't see
00:21:50any point in living here. For about 6 years, I think, I will stay here, then, if
00:21:54possible, I will try to leave here, not try, but just pack up and
00:21:58leave.
00:22:04The children go to school, they drive and don't understand anything, they're just
00:22:07small children, ready to crash. They are all drunk on this snowmobile, they drink
00:22:11and throw these bottles, throw these. In short, they've already littered the whole taiga with
00:22:14oil from all these things, they've thrown everything around. And
00:22:18the taiga feels it, it's already...
00:22:21as they say, I think, Lord, where do people get such
00:22:24money? This simply amazes me. And to
00:22:28take a bath in the bathhouse, they have 2 hours of bath for 4,000 just
00:22:31to wash. Can you imagine what rooms they have, this and what
00:22:35kind of crazy money they have? They
00:22:38come with such money, and we built
00:22:41this bathhouse when there were no skiers here yet. I could
00:22:44still build something calmly, as they say, on my own land. We only built
00:22:48it a little later, and then these skiers started buying everything up. It's a shame
00:22:52that I worked my whole life, as they say, and
00:22:55now I can't build a shed anywhere, or do anything, because all
00:22:59the land is sold, everything is seized. To live a whole life like this, and now
00:23:02they are the owners, and we are like their guests. That's how you can
00:23:06think. Of course, we lived our lives and
00:23:10caused ourselves such a headache.
00:23:13Every year it's, "Oh, we'll open the mine, we'll open the mine." And so much silence for
00:23:17so many years, and silence, and no mine, nothing. They
00:23:20might have something going on somewhere in Moscow, some progress, some
00:23:24movement. But we have absolutely nothing, it's all
00:23:27frozen, as they say, it remained that way. Nothing,
00:23:31only these skiers came, and that's just another headache from them,
00:23:34nothing else. That's it. We are like forgotten, nobody
00:23:38needs us here. That's it, no truth, no
00:23:41power. For me, all these people,
00:23:45why vote? For what? Because everything is as it was,
00:23:48everything is still in the same place, how does it stand?
00:24:50You've been living in war for five years, how? How do you
00:24:54show a destroyed
00:24:55city?
00:25:00The city is empty, everything
00:25:02that was once familiar to you, noisy, also
00:25:06becomes
00:25:06empty.
00:25:13So what's his way out, besides going to
00:25:16hang himself quietly in a corner? Russia is simply driving us
00:25:20into some kind of medieval age. There is a place for such
00:25:24a liberal party in Russia, of course, but there
00:25:27is no such party.
00:25:30And I had to write about what was happening there, well, like
00:25:34a concentration camp behind the walls in my country, this
00:25:38is a pain that is always with you. I will not tempt
00:25:41fate. Why do you need this? What are you
00:25:44preparing for? Why,
00:25:47in your opinion, is this moment or one person?
00:25:56No, by the way, oil is at $100 again. World oil
00:25:59prices sharply jumped due to new escalation. Oil
00:26:02is 106 and continues to grow. Yes, yes, our budget
00:26:05is being filled. Yes, good evening. Yes, Kremlin
00:26:09propagandists are happy about the rise in world oil
00:26:12prices. The interests of the state, for them, seem to be above the interests
00:26:15of individual citizens. Federal television eagerly discusses
00:26:19the benefits of rising oil prices, but turns a blind eye to
00:26:23the gasoline shortage in the country. Searching for gasoline at night in
00:26:26Yekaterinburg. How many hours did you wait? Since eight?
00:26:293.5, right? Ah, well, a little more.
00:26:40Since late spring, there have been plenty of such videos on social networks.
00:26:43Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries caused
00:26:47a severe fuel crisis in almost all Russian
00:26:50regions. 92 and diesel are available, nothing
00:26:54else. In online broadcasts and on the radio, the shortage is discussed
00:26:58cautiously. It's impossible to ignore the topic, but pro-government
00:27:01media dare not actively discuss it.
00:27:05Let's talk about the availability of gasoline now. This also
00:27:08creates a certain background, nervousness. Regional media
00:27:12practically daily publish lists of gas stations
00:27:15where you can refuel and give advice on how to save fuel.
00:27:19Local authorities periodically introduce an odd-even system
00:27:21depending on the car number
00:27:24of private car owners. Emergency services transport
00:27:28and the fleet of officials remain a priority. The reasons for the crisis
00:27:32are not publicly discussed in the media, using vague formulations and
00:27:36newspeak. Work to control and stabilize prices at private
00:27:40gas stations. Official sources link the gasoline shortage to
00:27:43disrupted logistics and all well-known political
00:27:47reasons. Meanwhile, on federal channels, they joyfully
00:27:50discuss attacks on Ukrainian gas stations, rising gasoline prices in
00:27:54the US, the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, which disrupted
00:27:57usual global oil supplies. Oil prices continue
00:28:01to rise. US President Trump said that high fuel prices worldwide
00:28:05are not the fault of the Middle East conflict, but
00:28:08Zelensky. If things continue this way, Russia will have no
00:28:12budget problems at all, even with financing serious military
00:28:15operations. Russia's budget, from which the Kremlin continues
00:28:18to finance the war in Ukraine, is actually bursting
00:28:22at the seams. Military expenditures continue to grow, as does
00:28:25the budget deficit. According to official data from the Ministry of Finance, for
00:28:29January-August of this year it reached 5.8 trillion
00:28:32rubles, or 2.5% of GDP. This is 1.5 times
00:28:36more than the analogous period of last year, 2025.
00:28:40According to economists, this year's deficit could be 9
00:28:43trillion rubles. However, the
00:28:46Kremlin calls the deficit a movable figure; it will not
00:28:49influence the political decision to stop
00:28:52the war.
00:28:55And you can hear it falling again,
00:28:57another one.
00:29:01Command.
00:29:08And during the court session, an unexpected
00:29:11detail emerged: thousands of people took to the streets of
00:29:14Tbilisi.
00:29:17Western sports brands almost failed to escape from
00:29:20Russia.
00:29:27Persons who are not directly participating in hostilities,
00:29:31including
00:29:34those members of the armed forces who have laid down their arms, as well as those who
00:29:37have ceased to take part in hostilities due to
00:29:41illness, injury, detention, or for any
00:29:44other reason, shall in all circumstances
00:29:48be treated humanely.
00:30:32The village of Ostrov, like the flood, cut off Afanasiivka in Mykolaiv
00:30:36region.
00:30:39Water began to overflow the dam, began
00:30:42to fill these
00:30:43ponds.
00:30:48And in the evening, this dam broke,
00:30:51that is,
00:30:57and it instantly rushed in...