Siberian woman’s weight loss rewarded with truck full of 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 kilograms.

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.

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.