RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT troops and volunteers are struggling to contain blazes that have already destroyed large swathes of the country to the south and east of Moscow. A number of strategic sites remained under threat from the fires yesterday, including a nuclear research centre near the city of Sarov in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Fifty-two people have already died in the fires, the Russian ministry of health and social affairs reported, with hundreds more requiring medical attention. The number of people estimated to have lost their houses has already run into the thousands.
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev began his response to the growing crisis by cutting short his summer holiday, returning to Moscow midweek. He has declared a state of emergency in seven of the most badly affected regions in Russia, namely the republics of Mari El and Mordovia, and the regions of Vladimir, Voronezh, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, and Ryazan.
A number of naval officials have also been sacked for failing to respond appropriately to a wildfire which destroyed a naval base in Kolomna, near Moscow. Mr Medvedev has threatened further dismissals if the situation continues to spiral out of control, with both military officials and representatives of local governments potentially in the firing line.
For some of those whose homes and summer houses are threatened by the blazes, though, the government’s response has not been effective enough. Many local residents are fighting the fires themselves, appealing for donations of fire-fighting equipment and volunteers to help try and stop the fires from spreading.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin responded personally to an angry blogger who criticised government priorities earlier this week.
“Give me back my bloody firebell and take your phone to hell,” the blogger railed, referring to the replacement of a fire warning system with a telephone, which had not even been connected.
Mr Putin responded to the expletive-laden text by coolly praising the blogger’s literary talents and reinstalling the fire bell in the village in question.
Russia has begun to accept foreign help to deal with the crisis. Italian staff and equipment landed in Russia yesterday, with a number of other EU countries pledging further assistance.
Help was also forthcoming from former Soviet republics; Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan had all sent equipment by the end of the working week.
The Russian emergencies ministry, the main government body in charge of fighting the fires, reported on Thursday that 24,413 wildfires had broken out already this year, covering at least 712,412 hectares.
While most of these have swept through Russia’s forests, nearly 1,000 have struck peat bogs.
The fires are the latest consequence of a summer of record-breaking temperatures in parts of Russia, which have also decimated crop yields.
The Russian drought has already had a devastating impact on the country’s agriculture, particularly this year’s grain harvest. Mr Putin introduced a temporary ban on grain exports earlier this week and issued orders to dip into reserves, amid fears of significant increases in domestic food prices.
Russia’s heatwave shows no sign of abating, meanwhile, with yesterday the hottest August 6th on record and meteorologists predicting that high temperatures would continue for the foreseeable future.