MOSCOW – Heavy downpours cooled Moscow yesterday after weeks of no rain and unprecedented heat as dozens of wildfires raged around the Russian capital.
The city remained largely free of the clouds of suffocating smog that affected it earlier, but weather experts say smoke from burning forests and peat bogs may choke the city if the wind changes.
Russia’s emergency situations ministry said its teams have managed to reduce the area covered by wildfires, but more than 500 are continuing to burn across the country, including 29 around Moscow. It said 14,000 firefighters are battling blazes around the capital.
A new wildfire started east of the country’s top nuclear research facility in Sarov, 480km (300 miles) east of Moscow. The blaze spread quickly, prompting firefighters to call reinforcements from neighbouring areas.
Earlier this month, massive wildfires around Sarov, the birthplace of Soviet nuclear weapons, prompted the nation’s nuclear agency to move all explosive and radioactive material as a precaution. Reinforcements, including aircraft and robots, helped stem the blazes.
Another potential danger comes from wildfires in areas contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster that may raise radioactive particles into the air and spread them over broader territory. The authorities have insisted all wildfires in the Chernobyl-affected regions have been quickly dealt with, and that radiation levels have remained normal.
The national weather service yesterday said it had dispatched a team of radiation experts to constantly monitor the radiation level in the western Bryansk region, the area of Russia that suffered most from the Chernobyl catastrophe.
The heat, unprecedented in 130 years of record-keeping, has cost Russia more than one-third of its wheat crop and prompted the government to ban wheat exports through the end of the year – a move that has sent soaring world grain prices to new highs.
Domestic grain prices in Russia also have been rising, and the export ban hasn’t driven them down. Officials in Moscow have registered a 10 per cent price hike in retail prices for bread in late July and early August.
Prime minister Vladimir Putin met with the head of the nation’s anti-monopoly agency, Igor Artemyev, and urged him to quickly punish those who try to drive prices up.
“They better act in accordance with the law, or they would face fines which would far exceed profits they are to win from speculation,” said Mr Putin. – (AP)