A thorough rundown of what's known about the outages in Moscow today is available here in Russian. I've paraphrased it in English below.
To sum it up, Energy Minister Khristenko has now stated that the initial cause of the outage was a fire at the Chagino substation just outside of Moscow. Sources say that the fire was due to aged equipment at the substation, which was brought on-line in 1963.
As a result, cascading outage took place, which was brought under control by 13.09 today, according to RAO UES, and Moscow is currently operating with access to 10% less electricity than required. Large "mega" stores on the outskirts of the city closed en masse, leading to huge traffic jams, and some stores downtown are closed as well.
In addition, telephone service was out for a time in the south-western part of the city, but all of the capital's airports continued to operate normally, and 95% of those stranded in the metro have already been evacuated without casualties.
RIA Novosti also reports Khristenko's claim that these outages are not due to the activity of terrorists.
No doubt this will all be blamed, by the public if not by the authorities, on RAO UES CEO Anatoly Chubais.
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