Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin climbed into a firefighting plane and dumped water on two of the hundreds of wildfires sweeping through western Russia and cloaking Moscow in a suffocating smog.
Putin has been a very visible leader in the battle against the fires, which have caused billions of dollars in damage and left thousands homeless in the past two weeks. He has demanded that soldiers help overstretched firefighting brigades and has walked through smoldering villages, consoling residents and promising them new homes by fall.
However, with his once sky-high approval ratings dropping — and sociologists warning that discontent could grow as the fires and a severe drought take their toll — Putin has not let up.
ON TV
Putin took off on Tuesday in a Be-200 firefighting plane and then moved into the copilot’s seat. TV footage showed him pushing a button to unleash water on blazing forest fires about 200km southeast of Moscow.
After hitting the button, Putin glanced toward the pilot and asked: “Was that OK?”
The response: “A direct hit!”
The stunt was classic Putin. In past years, he has copiloted a fighter jet, ridden a horse bare-chested in Siberia and descended to the bottom of Lake Baikal in a mini-sub. Just last month he drove a Harley Davidson motorcycle to a biker rally.
All of his exploits have been widely publicized on the national TV networks, which are under government control. Russia holds its next presidential election in 2012, and Putin would be eligible to run.
Damage from the fires was expected to hit US$15 billion, or about 1 percent of Russia’s GDP, the business newspaper Kommersant reported on Tuesday. The government has not released any damage estimates.
The hottest summer since Russia started record keeping 130 years ago has cost the nation more than a third of its wheat crop and prompted the government to ban wheat exports. Putin said last week the ban would last through the end of the year, but his deputy said on Tuesday the government may consider lifting the ban in October once the harvest is complete.
The government is eager to prevent a sharp increase in the price of bread, which could lead to greater public dissatisfaction. The agriculture minister, speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio, reassured Russians that there was no reason to expect retail bread prices to rise.
The acrid smog that has engulfed Moscow for a week eased a bit on Tuesday, but the concentration of pollutants remained high. Putin summoned Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who said the situation in the capital was difficult but that city health authorities were doing what was needed to help people cope with the heat and smog.
Ambulances calls have risen by nearly a quarter, Luzhkov said.
CALL TO LEAVE
The situation in Moscow was severe enough for the US State Department to allow non-essential personnel and the families of all diplomats at the US embassy to leave Russia temporarily at government expense. Spokesman P. J. Crowley said about 100 embassy staff and family members were eligible for the “authorized departure” program.
The handling of the wildfire crisis could weigh heavily on approval ratings for Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, the business daily Vedomosti cited a sociologist as saying.
Vedomosti said that three polls conducted last month showed Medvedev’s rating had dropped up to 10 percentage points since the start of the year, and Putin’s had declined by up to 6 percentage points.
The paper cited Leonty Byzov, a leading sociologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, as saying the wildfires could drag those figures down even further and stoke anti-government protests.
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