“Children cannot be left without holidays and gifts, but for officials there should be no New Year corporate parties,” said Vladimir Mazur, Tomsk governor.
There has been no news on whether Moscow will go ahead with its traditional New Year’s Eve firework display, usually an annual highlight. It was criticised for holding a display using 30,000 fireworks to celebrate the 875th anniversary of the founding of the city in September, just as Russian soldiers were being routed in Kharkiv.
It comes as the Russian military continues to suffer a number of issues suggesting that it is having problems maintaining and replacing crucial kit.
A Russian fighter jet crashed on a training mission in Primorsky Krai region, Siberia, on Saturday, the seventh crash in three months.
“Sanctions placed on Russia by the West could well be affecting Russia’s ability to manufacture and maintain parts needed to keep aircraft safe,” wrote Michael Bohnert, an engineering analyst at the RAND Corporation, a US think tank.
The Russian ministry of defence said that the pilot of the MiG-31 fighter jet ejected before the aircraft crashed into a remote forest.
Also on Saturday, it was reported that the Russian Black Sea fleet has lost 15 per cent of its fighting capacity since the start of the war.
Opposition Russian news networks said that of the original 74 combat ships and patrol boats, 12 have been destroyed and not yet replaced.
