St. Petersburg:
In Russia, The x-Z movement uses beautiful women to draw attention to social problems. Now, they're focusing their charm on the problems St Petersburg is facing because of heavy snow.
A group of mini-skirted, high-heeled young women gathered in the city centre with snow shovels on Thursday. They demanded that city authorities take the clean-up of snow and ice seriously.
The group's spokeswoman, Eva Tornado, also claimed that tourism experts say foreign visitors avoid St. Petersburg in the winter because of the city's inability to deal with its snow and ice.
"We have experienced this snow since last November. The (city) administration, the municipal services management companies and others do nothing to solve the problem. You see, we are still in snow.... So we decided to come out on our own. Maybe it will serve as an example to some males and they may come to help and make our city cleaner," added Tornado.
The protest comes after a six-year-old boy's death when a block of ice fell on him from a building last month. In addition to that the local hospital has reported treating more than 200 people with injuries they sustained from the snow and ice.