"Apparently, we have prayed too much. But it has also done us some good, because you know the poor condition of our network infrastructure," Aleksandr Yaroshuk added.

The mayor of Russia’s Baltic exclave, which will host FIFA World Cup games in 2018, first highlighted the need to “pray for a warm winter” in 2015.

Read more

Speaking at a meeting with local officials, he cited the pressing issue of worn-out snow-removal equipment, and said there was no money in the city budget to buy new machines.

“The winter will be horrific,” Yaroshuk said at the time, according to local media, before imploring local officials to “pray for the winter to be warm.”

In 2016, Yaroshuk took part in a radio discussion about religion, during which the mayor told one of the program’s hosts, who was busy telling fortunes using a book by philosopher Immanuel Kant, to switch to the New Testament.

“You should open the New Testament, not Kant!” Yaroshuk suggested. “Can you imagine how much wiser the residents of Kaliningrad would become?”

When a co-host rejected the idea, saying that fortunetelling based on a sacred book could be considered blasphemy, the mayor replied: “But the idea isn’t bad, is it?”