Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday sacked Russia’s top forestry official over criticism that he did little to combat deadly forest fires that were unleashed by a record heat wave and blanketed Moscow in smoke.
At a government meeting, Putin sacked Alexei Savinov, head of the Forestry Agency, following criticism that he kept a low profile and was not in sufficient control of Russia’s wooded areas. Savinov was replaced by his deputy, Viktor Maslyakov.
WILDFIRES
Critics have said the Forest Code, rushed through the State Duma (parliament) in 2006 on Putin’s orders, was the main cause of devastating wildfires that raged across central Russia, because the law disbanded a centralized system of forest protection.
Russian forests cover 809 million hectares, twice the size of the EU landmass, but the new legislation deprived the Forestry Agency of important powers to oversee them, critics said.
Putin on Friday also pledged another 2.7 billion roubles (US$88.52 million) in aid for wildfire victims, on top of the 5 billion roubles he promised earlier.
Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu told a news conference on Thursday that the cost of extinguishing fires across Russia, as well as funds allocated to building new houses, had reached 12 billion roubles.
DEATH RATE
President Dmitry Medvedev lifted the state of emergency on Friday in the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Mordovia regions, after torrential rain provided much needed respite to the capital at the end of the country’s most severe heat wave ever recorded.
The heat and wildfires are expected to shave US$14 billion off this year’s GDP, and have devastated grain crops. Moscow’s top health official said the acrid smoke doubled the city’s normal death rate.
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