Skyscraper-high sewage plume erupts in Moscow

There's a literal shitshow erupting in Moscow, where a skyscraper-high plume of sewage has erupted in the Russian capital, just months after Ukrainian hackers hit related systems.

Several Russian Telegram channels spilled news of the gut-wrenching geyser this morning, which erupted in the Kommunarka region of Moscow. Video of the explosion shows a tower of suspicious brown liquid shooting up higher than nearby buildings, presumably blanketing the area in less-than-fresh scents. 

Youtube Video

According to reports on Telegram - which The Register was unable to verify - Moscow's police attributed the column of crap to "a planned air release after pressure testing during the construction of a gas pipeline."

The other possibility is yet another cyberattack on Russian sewage infrastructure akin to what happened in April when hackers affiliated with Ukraine's security service, the SBU, destroyed servers, wiped data, and knocked sewage sensors all around the city offline. 

The Ukrainian hackers, part of a group called Blackjack, allegedly disrupted some 87,000 alarm sensors, destroyed around 70 servers, and wiped 90 terabytes of data in their bid to flood the Russian capital with waste water. The attack targeted a company called Moskollector, which runs communications systems for the city's sewage network, per the Kyiv Post. 

"We wish Moscow various man-made disasters these days," Ukrainian government sources told the Post in April. 

We've contacted multiple Ukrainian government offices to learn about the government's possible involvement in the Moscow sewage eruption, but haven't heard back. 

Russia can destroy its sewers just fine on its own, thanks

If not a cyberattack or a standard pressure-testing blowout, then it could be just another example of Russia's decaying infrastructure in action.

According to The Moscow Times, Russia's sewage infrastructure is overworked, obsolete, and in dire need of repair and replacement, most having been built in the 1960s and 70s. 

Russia's government has even admitted that its sewage systems aren't fit for purpose, with the Federal Assembly's official publication writing last year that sewer wear had reached 80 to 90 percent in most regions of the country. 

Citing repeated pipe failures in St. Petersburg, massive sewer leaks in Volgograd, and other incidents, the Russian government said it was holding a meeting to determine how to fund all the work that needs to be done, and to speed up the process.

Russian senator Andrey Shevchenko said last year that only one or two percent of repairs were being conducted per year, and the slow pace is largely due to insufficient funding. 

The Moscow Times reported that around 38,600 kilometers of pipes need to be replaced across Russia. Money needed to repair them, we note, would likely be easier to come by if the country wasn't facing an economic blockade due to its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. ®