The mayor’s promises of warm houses turn out to be useless to Balti’s elderly and disabled. They have to collect wood in the forests around the town in order to have their dwellings warmed up.

This comes after Renato Usatîi had promised he would give all the dry trees from the town to poor families.

In fact, the people buy the logs they should have received for free, at a price three times higher from firms favored by the town hall.

The Bălți local authorities say the poor have not received the wood logs, because the municipal company in charge does not have wood for sale.

"We’ve been told the ones having asked for wood last year have got it. Nobody has got any wood this year because there are no more logs," said a civil servants responsible with social assistance.