Dead Soviet Dam Comes Alive.

(From The Moscow Times)

It took nearly 30 years, but the largest power plant in the Far East finally came online Monday.

Officials said the completion of the Bureya hydroelectric dam in the Amur region will give the depressed regional economy a boost and help prevent crippling winter power outages in the Far East that have killed dozens in recent years.

"The fact that the construction of the Bureya hydroelectric power station has been completed is of significant importance for the region's economy," Energy Minister Igor Yusufov said Monday.

"Hydropower will reduce dependence on transported fuel, lower tariffs and drive production growth. ... Construction has created 10,000 jobs."

Unified Energy Systems has made the most of the publicity value of the Soviet-era project, launching an outdoor advertising campaign in Moscow in the run-up to its completion and holding multimedia exhibits in parliament and St. Petersburg's Tavrichesky Palace. The national power grid went so far as to sponsor a star-studded outdoor concert near Red Square on Monday to celebrate, and even President Vladimir Putin will get into the act when he flies to Amur next week to inspect the giant facility.

The history of the project goes back to 1911, when tsarist-era scientists began studying the electricity potential of the Bureya River, a tributary of the Amur.