Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a conference call with officials from across Russia, during which he heard accounts from the areas that had been most affected and where regional authorities had been forced to declare a state of emergency.
The prime minister emphasised the need to inform the population about the fire situation. He also pointed out the need to increase the capabilities of the relief and rescue services that fight forest fires.
In conclusion, Vladimir Putin said that the forest fire situation in Russia was difficult but under control. The total area affected by forest fires this year is almost a third of what it was in 2009, despite more adverse weather conditions this year. However, the prime minister stressed that measures taken in the regions had not always been effective or, more importantly, timely.
In this respect, Vladimir Putin emphasised the personal responsibility that officials at all levels bear for fire prevention measures and the effectiveness of such measures. Officials must not relax their attention towards this issue, the prime minister said.
Transcript of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome everyone to the meeting, both those of you here in the room and in the regions. Today, we will discuss wildfires in Russia and the problems they are causing. Just a few months ago, we were discussing the unusually cold winter, and today we are faced with an unusually hot summer.
Many regions have seen record high summer temperatures resulting in drought and fire-hazardous situations in the forests. Today, we will discuss measures to prevent and fight forest fires, as well as to limit their effects as much as possible, including for those individuals who have been affected.
Naturally, we will first listen to the reports from the regions that have experienced the most difficulties, and where a state of emergency has been declared by the local authorities.
Specifically, I would like to draw your attention to the following facts. First, fires can and are posing a threat to residential settlements, and consequently to people's life, health, and property. I would like you to report on the measures being taken to inform the public of fire hazards.
Secondly, the fire and emergency services involved in fire fighting need to be reinforced and their capacity strengthened. Under the circumstances, any failures may result in tragic consequences and, therefore, are absolutely unacceptable.
This is not the first time that we are discussing forest fires, and the problems in this area are well known. I will only remind you that, in accordance with the Forest Code, the main responsibilities for safety and protection are vested with the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
The federal budget allocates significant resources to the regions to meet these responsibilities. A total of 2.2 billion roubles have been allocated in 2010.
It is regional authorities that are responsible for implementing fire-prevention and other safety measures, including road construction and rehabilitation, creating and equipping helipads, and other necessary preventive measures.
The heads of regions must constantly monitor the implementation of these responsibilities, which must be subject to the oversight of federal agencies, including the Emergencies Ministry and the Federal Forestry Agency. Today, I would like the speakers to report on how effective the existing system of forest safety and protection is.
So let's get to work. I suggest we hear from our colleagues in the regions first. Then, I would like Mr Shoigu to speak, followed by Mr Zubkov.
Let's begin with the Moscow Region. Mr Gromov, can you hear us?
Boris Gromov: Yes. Good afternoon, Mr Putin. I'd like to begin by thanking the leadership of the Russian Emergencies Ministry for their efforts to help the Moscow Region.
During this year's fire-hazard season, we've had 2.5 as many wildfires in the region as a year ago, with the affected territory exceeding last year's twelvefold in terms of the total number of hectares. Peat fires account for about one-third of the total while the remaining two-thirds have been forest fires.
No large-scale wildfires have been recorded in the region so far this year. Up to fifty wildfires break out here daily, on average. I've personally taken several flights and rides around the areas most at risk in order to coordinate and monitor efforts on the ground.
A large pool of personnel and hardware has been formed to fight wildfires in the region. We have 1,084 workers and 345 pieces of machinery. The Emergencies Ministry has also sent in some of its forces from neighboring regions, including Kaluga, Smolensk, and Tula, as well as from Moscow.
In our daily operations to detect and extinguish large-scale wildfires, we employ aircraft, including heavy aircraft.
The area affected by wildfires within the National Forest Fund keeps growing, but we have difficulty organizing efforts to deal with the problem, as the Moscow Region is the only region in Russia lacking authority over its forests.
To protect the population against wildfires in the Moscow Region we've been implementing an array of preventive efforts since this past spring. These include regulations for preparing and executing measures to minimize risks during the wildfire season. Material and financial resources have been accumulated in sufficient quantities (almost 170 million roubles, as of today). We've set up a centre for interdepartmental interaction to prevent and extinguish wildfires in the Moscow Region. And in each of the municipalities we've established headquarters for day-to-day work, to be supervised by mayors. We've also arranged for the gathering of up-to-date information on wildfires, including with the use of air reconnaissance, and on measures being taken to prevent and extinguish wildfires.
We've also arranged for wildfire safety reports to be made to the public on television, radio and in print media, as well as through leaflets and brochures distributed to local businesses and schools. In addition, four rapid-response groups have been set up to oversee the north, the south, the west and the east of the Moscow Region, respectively, with deputies to the regional prime minister placed in charge of each such group. Also, the start of the upcoming hunting season has been postponed till autumn.
Unfortunately, the Moscow Region is faced with the challenge of wildfires every year, with the northeast, the east and the southeast particularly at risk. The biggest danger is posed by the region's peat deposits, of which many have now been abandoned by their owners (some, including the Shatura hydroelectric power plant, have switched over to gas). Peat plants have all gone bankrupt, and no one really needs them these days. With this in mind, we've been contemplating, since last year, flooding the abandoned peat deposits. We've ordered a feasibility study, but the financial crisis has forced us put the project on hold, unfortunately.
According to preliminary estimates, flooding peat deposits-which, in my view, would be the best solution - will cost more than 4.5 billion roubles in the Shatura district alone, which is the one hardest hit by peat fires. In the Moscow Region, there're five districts where peat deposits have been developed commercially - Shatura, Yegorievsk, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Lukhovitsy and Taldom. I would appreciate it if the government considered instituting a federal programme to help us tackle the problem.
In conclusion, I'd like to assure you, Mr Putin, that the resources we've got on hand will enable us to keep the situation under control. All the services involved - regional as well as federal - are working in close cooperation. And I believe we'll resolve the problem eventually. All the more so since we've got additional resources on standby, provided by the Agriculture Ministry, the utilities and housing sector, and building brigades.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Gromov. The peat deposits are, indeed, burning. Do subsoil fires continue into the winter?
Boris Gromov: Yes, they smolder even in wintertime, 5-6 meters underground. And with the return of warm weather, the flames will rise above the surface.
Vladimir Putin: The programme you've mentioned, the one about peat deposits, how long would it take to implement?
Boris Gromov: I believe it would take about three years, if all the areas with peat deposits are targeted. Actually, we executed part of that programme back in 2003, when disastrous wildfires hit the region, sending smoke and haze to Moscow. We then flooded some of the peat - luckily, we had enough water. Now our water reserves are growing smaller with each passing day. But I think we should proceed with this [programme] anyway.
Vladimir Putin: The sum of 5 billion roubles in projected allocations is to be spent over these three years, right?
Boris Gromov: Four-and-a-half billion is the amount for one single district, and we've got five to attend to, overall.
Vladimir Putin: So, it adds up to 20-25 billion?
Boris Gromov: Yes, more or less.
Vladimir Putin: Okay, we'll return to this later on. Thank you very much.
Now let's hear from the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Mr Shantsev. The Nizhniy Novgorod Region, Valery Shantsev. The fire has approached communities and several houses have burned down. What is the current situation?
Valery Shantsev: Mr Putin, colleagues. In the Nizhniy Novgorod Region, like in several other regions, we have had an unusually dry and hot weather for several months now. We announced a fire alert on May 5 and had to impose a state of emergency from July 1. During this period, 1,258 fires have occurred, of which 16,000 hectares are forests and the rest are bogs. The fires have largely been contained. At present there are five fires still blazing and eight villages are in the area of these fires.
Crown fire struck the village of Semilovo; all the resources and manpower have been mobilised and we managed to save more than half of the village. Sixteen homes have burned down and their occupants were evacuated in good time. We are doing everything that needs to be done to keep the fire out of our villages: large numbers of people and assets are now working to put out forest fires and patrol the localised fires; more than 2,500 people and 300 machines have been contributed by enterprises, including 80 pieces of heavy duty equipment.
People are being informed about the fire situation through the media, at their places of work, railway stations, shopping centres and through leaflets, and we have banners on every road leading towards the forests. We have restricted entry into forests; 258 mobile groups are patrolling forests. About 100 mobile groups are being created by security agencies, the FSB and the local administrations. Watch groups have been created at enterprises that have vehicles at their disposal and the necessary instruments to be able to go from place to place and put out fires.
Recently we have been seeing from 15 to 20 fires of various scale break out every day. We have tapped all the necessary financial resources. We are grateful to our colleagues from the Internal Affairs Ministry and the Emergencies Ministry for their help. We have joint teams involving servicemen and rescue workers.
We are doing everything to prevent fires from reaching communities. The situation has been difficult, especially in the last two or three days, when we have had strong winds. We had extremely strong wind this afternoon; the forecast for this afternoon says wind velocity will be 15-20 m per second. This makes the fire to spread. We have a Be-200 flying boat and a helicopter on patrol. Both the Air Force and our own patrols are flying reconnaissance missions to prevent fires from spreading.
The situation is complex and challenging but it is under control. We are doing everything we can to cope with what is happening in the forests in our region. I think we will keep our villages safe.
Vladimir Putin: Do you need additional assistance from us?
Valery Shantsev: Thank you but we have managed to cope so far. Fires happen. The worst fire we are fighting at present came to us from the Ryazan Region, on the border with the Vyksun District. We managed to contain it but it broke through from Ryazan in another place.
There are some steps we are coordinating with other regions. This is a shared tragedy and we should all work together. Absolutely all the federal agencies have responded to our call. I am not aware of any problems. They understand that the situation is extremely serious.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. The Republic of Mari El. Leonid Markelov is on the line.
Leonid Markelov (President of the Republic of Mari El):
The Republic of Mari El has also been affected by forest fires, but there is much less damage than in the neighbouring regions. The government has the situation fully under control. We have had anomalous hot weather since April. And since that time we have restricted people from entering forests, and we created a group to fight the fires.
A total of 332 fires have broken out and we have put out 326 of them within 24 hours. About 8,500 hectares of land has been destroyed. Fires break out every day for various reasons: some are started by man, some are due to negligence and some fires start by themselves. All these fires are put out promptly.
The Forestry Ministry and those who rent forest land and forest plots (more than 700 persons) have formed a task force and they have received 182 pieces of equipment.
If necessary we can marshal additional resources, about 3,000 men and 310 pieces of equipment. Two aircraft, An-2 and Sky Ranger, are patrolling the whole territory of the Republic of Mari El all the time.
Aviation helps us to spot smoke and fires and to put them out quickly; sometimes we drop firefighters by parachute. Task groups have been set up in every municipality in the republic. If a municipality fails to put out a fire within several hours, the Forestry Ministry steps in.
I can safely report to you that not a single home has been damaged. On June 25-27, we extinguished major fires in three communities; we had to evacuate about 1,700 people (children from summer camps and holiday makers from hotels). But we put out these fires within two days. Within two days children were back in their summer camps.
We have fire engines on standby and there is no danger. Not a single community has suffered. There was a danger that a fire would spread to a village in the Hilemarsky District on July 23, but we put out that fire within 24 hours.
The public are constantly kept informed about the situation through the mass media and through municipalities. We have made all our forests off limits to the public. Patrolling is carried out together with the Internal Affairs Ministry: together with the Forestry Ministry they have made 570 raids, and fined people who mishandled fire and even opened several criminal cases.
The situation is fully under control today. I think we can cope on our own.
We have no requests to the government of the Russian Federation. We are well able to control the situation and to liquidate the fires.
We have a minor question and that is a 30 million rouble credit from Rosleskhoz to put out the fires. However, I have ordered the Reserve Fund of the Republic of Mari El to be used to put out the fires and all the funds are disbursed in a timely manner, on first signal, as soon as the need arises. The government commission for the prevention and liquidation of emergencies controls the forest fire situation, but the actual fires are of course put out by the Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Mari El. Various methods are used to put out the fires, both scientific and by just letting the fire burn itself out, by ploughing furrows and creating mineralised strips.
Everything is going according to plan. As of today we have enough equipment and enough assets to control the situation and put out the fires as soon as they appear.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. The Rostov Region, Vasily Golubev, please.
Vasily Golubev (Governor of the Rostov Region): Mr Putin, colleagues. Since the danger of fire appeared, 16 natural fires on a total area of 1,450 hectares have been registered in the Rostov Region. In particular three main areas covering 1,430 hectares should be noted.
The damage from the fires was about 37 million roubles, and the number of forest fires has diminished by 67%. At the same time the areas covered by the fires have increased by 2.8 times.
No fires have been registered in protected natural reserves. All the fires were put out within 24 hours with the exception of the most severe fire in the Sholokhovsky District, which took four days to extinguish. No deaths or injuries or damage to homes have been reported in the region. The fire danger remains very high to this day. We have created a task force of more than 3,000 and provided them with 606 units of machinery, including three aircraft to fight forest fires. The region has in recent years received allocations amounting to about 80 million roubles to equip firefighting units, which has enabled us to purchase and deploy 70 units of firefighting and special equipment. We have analysed previous fires and have drawn conclusions that have enabled us to work out measures to deal with emergency situations and to protect forests more effectively. These measures help us to spot fires quickly and to deploy the manpower and assets to put them out.
The region has a 100-million-rouble a year long-term programme to deal with such problems. As of today, we have the necessary reserves, including material and financial reserves. The manpower and assets that are available today are on high fire alert.
We use every opportunity to keep the population informed. We use every available means to warn people about how to behave if emergencies arise.
We believe that the situation is under control. We work closely together with the federal agencies. I am confident that we will keep the situation under control.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Buryat President Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn has the floor.
Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn: Mr Putin, esteemed colleagues, 654 fires have been recorded in the Republic of Buryatia since the start of the high fire-risk period, which is much less than last year, when the situation was more complicated. Last year's difficulties have made us muster our forces to combat the present drought and forest fires well in advance.
The area on fire was 29,000 hectares, about a half of last year's, so the improvement is evident. There are only two major conflagrations covering a total area of 400 hectares, roughly 1% of last year's levels, so this is a significant reduction.
On the whole, an average of 7.5 wildfires break out a day, 6.2 of them, or 82%, are extinguished within the first day.
8,240 men and 2,725 vehicles are involved in putting out the forest fires. Planes are being used for patrolling the forest and fighting fires.
Dry thunderstorms caused 111 forest fires at the beginning of June, some of them in places hard of access, which complicated the situation.
The government and local authorities took steps to stabilise the situation. A state of emergency was introduced in six districts and extraordinary safety measures were taken in three. Public access to forests was limited in five districts. The media and educational establishments are stepping up their distribution of fire safety information. Multiagency task forces are sent to the areas most in danger.
Mr Putin, Buryatia is suffering from drought, as are many other parts of Russia. We introduced a state of emergency across the whole republic on July 26. Everyone has been mobilised. We are fighting both the fires and the drought threatening agriculture. What have we done since last year? Over winter we went a long way to understanding the causes of these forest fires. We concluded that we needed to change the way forest wardens are remunerated, shifting the emphasis from fire extinguishing to their prevention. We have put in place sizeable bonuses for successful fire prevention. This has gone a long way to encourage them to take the initiative in this work.
We have also increased charges for the sale of burnt wood. As you know, the republic is in the protected Baikal natural area, where tree felling is almost entirely prohibited, with the exception of distant localities. So people thought up a cunning way of getting round this, by setting the forest on fire, then the fire-damaged wood is taken for free. We tripled the charges, so now it is cheaper to fell undamaged timber than fire-damaged wood. The number of incidents of arson has fallen drastically.
The local population has been taught to put out fires and inoculated against tick-borne encephalitis, so we can mobilise roughly 6,000 people when necessary. There is an early warning system in operation, and voluntary fire brigades have been formed.
We are modernising our fire-fighting equipment, albeit slowly. We allocated twenty million roubles last year to purchase the equipment required, which enabled us to carry out a wide range of works. For instance, we have ploughed around 142 of our most endangered villages next to forests so as to protect them against forest fires. Forest corridors are also ploughed around productive and commercial forests. We have created 1,348 kilometres of forest corridors and restored roughly 2,000 kilometres of old ones to contain fires lest they spread to hilly areas where fire-fighting is difficult. Mr Putin, there are no forest fires now. We have the situation under control, and all manpower and equipment have been mobilised. We are aware of the emergency and are ready to fight fires.
That concludes my report.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. Transbaikal Territory Governor Ravil Geniatulin has the floor.
Ravil Geniatulin: Mr Putin, Mr Shoigu, Mr Zubkov, I feel for my colleagues because we share their problems every year from the middle of March and occasionally through to October. This dire experience has taught us to take every precaution, and they are beginning to show results.
The number of fires has fallen by a third this year, the affected area is 3.7 times smaller. There are only three major fires today. We have, on average, seven fires a day, as in Buryatia. Five or six of them, or 76%, are put out each day.
We have more than 11,000 forest fire fighters equipped with over 2,000 vehicles, including nine rented aircraft. Nine fire engine trains are on the alert thanks to our good cooperation with Russian Railways Company.
Regional fire services' staff and equipment are on the alert to fight forest fires. I thank Mr Shoigu, who, after a slight disagreement, supported the preservation of our autonomous fire service. It currently has a staff of 1,500. The population has sufficient protection. This is in parallel to the Emergencies Ministry, which is doing its duty as manager of the fire-fighting network of our territory, and this partnership is bearing fruit.
I stress that it takes a professional to put down forest fires. Our practice and my personal experience prove this point. So our fire service started taking part in competitions last year, and we have won many competitions. I think they are also bearing fruit.
We currently have also 475 voluntary fire brigades, not only on the alert for wildfires but also providing a routine safety service to populated areas.
Despite financial problems, we have significantly upgraded our equipment during these two years. We have purchased 46 general-purpose and special vehicles, including 22 ARS-14 tank lorries, which we received from the army (as you can see in this slide). We buy them from the army at 200,000 roubles apiece and spend 170 to 150 thousand to equip them with pumps, hoses and everything else. Some lorries need to be repaired and repainted. They are all standing ready now.
There is one thing I don't quite understand, Mr Putin. These are necessary expenditures benefitting the public, but these are serious sums of money, especially for such a lean budget as ours. This 200,000 plus another 150 to 170, so one lorry costs us 370,000 roubles, a sizeable sum. We use them in forest fires and for other purposes. Majority of large settlements have vehicles like this now. I would like to emphasise again that we are very grateful to Mr Shoigu for the ten lorries we have received gratis, they have already been converted into standard fire engines.
On the whole, we have no serious problems with fuel and lubricants or with funding. I have one request, however. I think grant distribution should change a bit with a preferential approach in areas where there are fires every year. Our territory, for one, will spend roughly 30 million roubles on routine fire-safety matters this year. In fact, we have spent the sum already even though the danger season is not over yet.
I agree with Mr Nagovitsyn that usage-based financing should be gradually replaced by incentives based on the results achieved.
One possible way of doing this is to allow us spend the money saved for at least two measures: bonuses to the best firemen and the purchase of additional equipment. We Siberians have another request: please pace up the establishment of an interregional wildfire air centre in the Siberian Federal District, which would dispatch parachute fire brigades because ours is a vast area and we sometimes have to ask each other for help. Such a mobile and well-equipped centre would be of great assistance. At present, there are no fires in the territory, and we control the situation. This concludes my report.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much, Mr Geniatulin. Primorye Governor Sergei Darkin has the floor.
Sergei Darkin: Mr Putin, esteemed colleagues, there are no wildfires in Primorye at present, though 142 have been recorded in a total area of 7,800 hectares since the start of the year - 3.9 times less than in the same months last year. The share of major fires fell nine-fold and damage done 22-fold. We owe it all to the following measures. Like everyone else, we have established large brigades comprising 3,000 men and over a thousand vehicles. We have trained the managers of 61 agencies to cope with large forest fires. Nine aircraft patrol the area and put out forest fires.
Based on the results of a five-year study, we have stationed six mobile fire prevention teams before the danger season. No less importantly, last year we created 506 kilometres of forest corridors. Also, in order to monitor forest fires, alongside the Emergencies Ministry we established a common control unit that is hooked up to the satellite fire monitoring net. All the forestry offices and 134 major leaseholders are connected to the Federal Agency for Forestry satellite fire monitoring system. They have monitors and access to all orbital surveys. It is a great help in enabling them to organise a rapid response to fires that break out, and extinguish them quickly.
Mr Putin, we have extinguished all the fires in the Primorye Territory as of today. We have sufficient manpower and equipment. We have the resources. We are ready to continue our work in fire fighting and prevention. My report is over.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much, Mr Darkin. Mr Shoigu has the floor, and Mr Zubkov after him.
Sergei Shoigu: Mr Putin, esteemed colleagues, the number of wildfires has increased by 6% since the beginning of the high fire-risk period. At the same time, due to measures we, and our colleagues, have taken, the burnt-out area has fallen 2.3-fold compared to last year. However, peat fires remain a problem. They have seen a 170% increase and the fire area is 220% greater than the annual average, and figures for last year. An average 42 peat fires start each day. Luckily, 90% of them are put out the day they are spotted. A national emergency control system has been established. It has more than 238,000 personnel and 25,000 vehicles, including 226 aircraft. The Emergency Ministry's aviation has accomplished over 400 missions, with their total length exceeding 600 hours, and has poured nearly 6,000 tonnes of water on the fires and monitored over 20,000 square kilometres of forest. A state of emergency and limited access to forests has been introduced in 32 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
All these measures have prevented major damage to the economy, transport and oil and gas pipelines. Up to 90% of wildfires are extinguished the day they are spotted. The situation remains complicated, however, and we think additional urgent and long-term measures are necessary.
First, in areas that are particularly high-risk today, those suffering from drought and high winds that are popular destinations for large groups of people who go hiking in the forest at the weekend, we need to strengthen those groups responsible for land and air monitoring of the number of visitors, and fire safety.
Second, there is the problem of forest fires in government nature reserves, national parks and other protected natural sites. At present, their managers either conclude independent fire-fighting contracts or fires are put out by their staff. Take the Rdeisky government nature reserve in the Novgorod Region, which has an area of 36,000 hectares and 14 employees whose only equipment is a tractor and three chainsaws. Despite that, fire-fighting is one of their duties. There are many similar instances. This is why I deem it expedient to contract Federal Fire Service units for forest fires in protected natural sites.
Third, the involvement of trained and equipped organisations in fighting wildfires remains a major objective. Mr Putin, we have prepared a special report about this for you, and I think the record of this meeting should include instructions on these issues.
As for forest fire monitoring, we have practical proposals here: to gather all the monitoring agencies under one roof and so really unify monitoring in every constituent entity. At present, it falls to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Natural Resources, in part the Defence Ministry and regional authorities. The main thing we need today is to introduce amendments or additional provisions to the law. Establishing a united agency to monitor forests will require legislative amendments because the acting law stipulates that checks are carried out on forest roads, reservoirs and forest corridors, as well as fire-fighting equipment, no more frequently than once in three years. In reality, however, such checks are necessary for every high fire-risk period. Protective furrows around settlements must also be checked to prevent the kind of accidents we have seen recently.
Today a large number of federal forces are involved in forest protection and fire-fighting. Mr Putin, I have several questions about these forces. First I will request funds to bolster their resources. This concerns the Defence Ministry, the Emergencies Ministry and the Interior Ministry. We are using resources not earmarked for fighting forest fires, and we need emergency relief grants from the reserve fund.
Next, Be-200 aircraft have proved their worth. I ask you to issue an order on the establishment of two extra air squadrons in the Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts, with four craft in each. It could be a long-term objective.
Last but not least, you supported our proposal of two years ago to send decommissioned military equipment for retooling. It mainly concerned tank lorries. There are now several thousand such vehicles. Some regions have received up to 300 extra fire engines made from lorries taken out of long storage.
That concludes my report. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Mr Zubkov, go ahead.
Viktor Zubkov: Esteemed colleagues, I am in complete agreement with previous speakers in that the current situation in our forests might be difficult but it remains under control.
This year the government began discussing the fire season this year earlier than ever before - as early as March, at a meeting of the Council for the Development of the Forestry Complex under the Government of the Russian Federation.
On June 3, during the conference call the government issued instructions on the provision of relevant fire-fighting equipment to forest fire protection agencies; the enhancement of fire-fighting and fire-prevention efficiency, particularly in nature reserves; and tougher control on the use of federal grants for to prevent and fight forest fires.
The situation is under control on the whole, as the regional governors have said.
This year fire covered 480,000 hectares of land, compared to one million and 650 hectares last year.
However, the unprecedented heat wave has caused fires to break out in the Ivanovo Region, Buryatia, the Irkutsk and Tyumen regions, Primorye and elsewhere, as their governors have reported here.
There were major blazes. A forest fire spread over 5,400 hectares in the Ivanovo Region because of the authorities' negligence.
I acknowledge that regional governors have responded correctly where fire fighting measures are implemented too slowly: two forest committee heads have been dismissed - in the Ivanovo Region and Primorye.
Forests are federal property, and sizeable federal budget allocations are made to protect them.
I would like to support Mr Shoigu, who has raised the topic here, and this is something I mentioned before: the Federal Agency for Forestry needs unlimited rights in forest control, including fire safety control. It has no such rights at present. They are scattered across many ministries and agencies. We in government are working to grant it such rights.
Companies and regions are asking about this. I will have my last coordinating meeting with one of the ministries, on Thursday, and we will submit information to our government commission for administrative reform to ensure direct and reliable links between the federal centre and the regions.
We need to accelerate the establishment of federal interregional fire centres. The governors have mentioned them today. I would like to advise the constituent entities to focus more on forest leaseholders and increase their liability for non-compliance with fire prevention orders. The Forest Law entered into force quite a while ago, and I think it is high time to draw up regional targeted programmes for forest fire protection - at least for the next five years, to 2015.
I think the regions should slightly increase fire prevention funding from their budgets. A proportion of the revenues gained from forest use could be channelled there. In particular, this money might be spent on fire-fighting equipment.
I think the implementation of the measures that the regional governors and Mr Shoigu have mentioned will stabilise the fire situation in the forests and facilitate the normalisation of work in this field. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. I see another meeting participant on the screen. This is Mr Arsen Kanokov of Kabardino-Balkaria. Mr Kanokov, what is the situation in your region?
Arsen Kanokov: Mr Putin, our republic has had no fires for ten years, unlike other regions, so the situation here is normal.
I would like to make a short report on the Baksan Hydroelectric Plant, if I can.
Vladimir Putin: Please go ahead.
Arsen Kanokov: The government commission led by Igor Sechin carried out its work in our republic. We visited the plant, carried out checks and evaluated the damage. Debris is being removed from the plant, and I thank you for those visits by top officials from the RusHydro Company and the Interregional Grid Distribution Company.
The scale of repairs needed, and their cost, have been evaluated. It will take about two years to restore the Baksan plant. The cost of restoring the plant and of increasing its production capacity has been established. The plant previously produced roughly 25 megawatts. The decision was taken to increase it to 30-35 megawatts.
I would like to thank the commission for all its work in Kabardino-Balkaria. As for forest fires, we have all the equipment required to fight them thanks to the Emergencies Ministry. It monitors the situation, and there are relevant funds and equipment to fight a fire should one break out in the republic. This concludes my report. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Kanokov. We should join forces with the law enforcement agencies to ensure better protection of energy and other infrastructure projects. You know the details of the accident you mentioned, so you see that more attention needs to be paid to security issues. I hope you and law enforcement agencies will ensure this is done. As for restoring the plant, there are plans in place as you have just mentioned. We had intended to carry out major repairs on the plant quite soon. It needs to be comprehensively upgraded, and that is what we will do.
Let us go back to firefighting, which is our main subject today. We have heard reports from the heads of Russian regions. We have heard the opinion of the heads of federal agencies. In conclusion, I would like to say the following. First, some thoughts on the way work has been organised. I have a memorandum on the organisations that have won tenders to perform the functions of putting out forest fires. The Republic of Bashkortostan. The winning outfit has the following resources at its disposal: 1,080 firefighters, 32 fire engines, 46 tractors and 52 other items of equipment.
The Perm Territory: 69 firefighters and 2 planes. This is probably an An-2 rather than a Be-200. Just 69 people. What is this outfit that has won the tender to extinguish fires? It is an aviation forest protection base. Forest protection. And you are telling me that they can put out fires with such resources? They can probably alert you to what is happening in the region, or they can do reconnaissance. But what can they do to put out the fires?
The Republic of Mari El has 56 firefighters, Mordovia has 50.
I urge the heads of regions to be more careful in selecting the organisations entrusted with such complex and often very urgent tasks. The selection system probably needs to be improved. The government will have to think about it too.
Now regarding the specific proposals our colleagues have made. First of all, of course, the Moscow Region is dealing with the peat bog fires. Boris Gromov said it costs 5 billion to deal with a single peat bog, which adds up to 20-25 billion. I ask the administration of the Moscow Region, together with the Emergencies Ministry and the Ministry of Economic Development to provide certain background facts: what amounts of money are needed to resolve the problem, when they are needed and for what periods. Of course it is a little bit of a stretch to speak about a final solution because peat bogs and nature are difficult to control. But everything must be done to minimise the negative consequences of peat burning in the Moscow Region. I need information broken up by years and amounts of funding.
Now about the forest management debts. Mr Zubkov, please draw the creditors' attention to this.
Viktor Zubkov: It's 30 million.
Vladimir Putin: 30 million. Some sound proposals have been made by the leader of Buryatia. It is true that we need to change the system of paying firefighters and the system of paying for the forests affected by fires. I ask all of you to think about it.
A proposal has come from the Baikal Region. I remember it and I will keep it in mind.
As regards creating centres in Siberia, that is also a sound idea. Mr Shoigu, would you please think about it and report back.
I would like to recognise the positive results in the Primorye Territory. They have carried out a large amount of work creating more than 500 km of fire protection strips. I think this is partly the result of the overall improvement in the Primorye Territory. We will think about additional allocations from the Reserve Fund of the Russian Government.
Please submit your proposals for the formation of two aviation groups.
On the whole the forest fire situation in Russia is difficult, but judging from reports from the regions, it is under control. The total area affected by fires this year, as the regional leaders have said, is almost three times less than in 2009, although the weather conditions are more difficult today than last year.
In the Primorye Territory damage is 22 times smaller than last year. Not a bad result.
Even so, I have to say that the measures taken in the regions have not always been effective and, most importantly, not always timely. In some cases this had sad and occasionally tragic consequences.
Several communities have been seriously damaged by fire. People lost their homes and property. I would like to remind my colleagues in the regions that relief work in this situation is the duty of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. I request that you submit to the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development reports on the amount and concrete types of relief work you have carried out to help the people who have suffered from the fires.
Let me remind you that the authorities at all levels are personally responsible for controlling the fire situation and for taking effective measures. The problem should be under constant control. The government will shortly issue corresponding instructions. All the proposals that have been made during the course of this conference will be summed up.
Thank you very much for your work. Good-bye.