Source link : https://london-news.net/bridging-the-gap-the-struggle-for-survival-in-yakutsk-amidst-the-unfinished-lena-bridge/
As 2025 was coming to an end, a group of residents from Yakutsk, the capital of Russia’s Sakha (Yakutia) republic, braved frigid temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius to make their way to the offices of the local main newspaper.
On the steps of Yakutsk Vecherniy, they filmed a brief 12-second clip that quickly gained traction on the Sakha internet.
“We are here at the Yakutsk Vecherniy office for an important reason: to clarify a matter,” a man said to the camera, pulling a lilac necktie from his jacket pocket.
“It’s the end of the year, folks,” he stated, shaking the tie vigorously.
This performance alluded to a bet made by Aysen Nikolaev, the head of Sakha, with the editor-in-chief of Yakutsk Vecherniy in 2019. Nikolaev had promised to eat his tie if his administration failed to construct a bridge across the Lena River, which separates Yakutsk from the rest of Russia.
Six years later, the bridge still remains unbuilt.
The absence of a bridge connecting the two sides of the world’s 11th longest river leaves Yakutsk, a city with a population of over 350,000, isolated from the rest of Russia for nearly half the year. This isolation denies thousands of residents access to essential services found only in the capital of this resource-rich region.
Every year, this situation forces hundreds to attempt risky crossings over unstable ice, often at the peril of their lives.
Yakutsk holds the title of the coldest major city on Earth, with average January…
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Author : rimmaruslan98@gmail.com
Publish date : 2026-02-03 18:01:00
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