MOSCOW (AP) – Shedding the pounds in Siberia can come with a particularly welcome reward – coal.
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 10 kilos lost, everyone thought it was a just joke.
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).
“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.