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New Asphalt Proves Faulty After Putin Visit to Russian Village

Workers in a Siberian village have begun removing the faulty road asphalt that had been hastily laid when the region was expecting a visit by Russia's President Vladimir Putin a month earlier, a local news report said Tuesday.

The asphalt in the village of Blagodatny in the Zabaikalsky region cracked two days after the roads were paved, local ZabMedia news portal reported Tuesday.

The chief engineer of the government agency that commissioned the work, Konstantin Vyzhlov, maintained that the “asphalt was laid down properly, but because the schedule was tight, some sagging has taken place,” the report said.

Workers will remove the upper layer of the asphalt and repave the roads within a week, he was quoted as saying.

The village of Blagodatny features houses built for local inhabitants who had lost their homes during recent forest fires, the report said.

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