This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/siberias-novel-reward-for-shedding-the-pounds--coal/2015/12/24/d98a0d98-aa1e-11e5-b596-113f59ee069a_story.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Siberia’s novel reward for shedding the pounds — coal Siberia’s novel reward for shedding the pounds — coal
(about 1 hour later)
MOSCOW — Shedding the pounds in Siberia can come with a particularly welcome reward — coal.MOSCOW — Shedding the pounds in Siberia can come with a particularly welcome reward — coal.
Yelena Salnikova, a nurse from a small town of Berezovskoye, got a truck full of the stuff from authorities in the coal-rich Russian region of Kemerovo on Wednesday for losing 30 kilos (66 pounds). When the long-serving — and somewhat overweight — governor of Russia’s Kemerovo region Aman Tuleyev promised earlier this year to reward locals with 1.5 metric tons of coal for every ten kilos lost, everyone thought it was a just joke.
The dispatch means that Kemerovo’s long-serving governor Aman Tuleyev has made good on his promise earlier this year to award locals with 1.5 metric tons of coal for every ten kilos lost. But Tuleyev made good on his promise on Wednesday when Yelena Salnikova, a nurse from a small town of Berezovskiy, got a truck full of the black stuff from authorities in the coal-rich region for losing 30 kilos (66 pounds).
Salnikova said on Russian television that the 5-ton truck of coal would help her heat her home for at least half the long Siberian winter even if temperature falls below -30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit). “I had insomnia, headaches, I could hardly climb stairs to the fourth floor,” 43-year old Salnikova told Mir television.
Her ensuing decision to lose some weight paid dividends Wednesday when local authorities brought a truck to Salnikova’s coal shed and gave her a framed “coal certificate” for losing weight.
The nurse, who went on a diet and started working out after her weight hit 112 kilos in July, said she had to buy a new wardrobe for the winter season and was happy to save money on heating.
“This will save me up to 8,000 rubles ($100) if it’s colder than -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) and will surely last for at least half the winter,” Salnikova said in televised remarks before she began to shovel the coal from the giant heat into buckets.
Winters in Kemerovo are typically extremely cold and -5 degrees Centigrade on Thursday is unusually warm for the time of year.
A spokesman for the Kemerovo government said on Twitter on Thursday that authorities are going to turn the “slimming down for coal” program into a reality show which is due to hit the screen in January.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.