The Russian government is ready to consider allocating more funds to support the regions affected by wildfires, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a meeting today. The current plan allows for 5 billion roubles to be allocated to 14 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Pensioners affected by the fires will receive an additional compensation of 25,000 roubles from the Pension Fund.

Mr Putin emphasised the need to control the effective spending of the funds and added that a region may use one contractor to build new homes for all the local fire victims. The regional governors will be personally responsible for providing new housing to them, Putin said.

He also urged local authorities and services to respond more promptly to new fire reports. To prevent more wildfires in the future, Putin asked the respective officials to develop federal and regional programmes for this purpose. He instructed the Federal Agency for Forestry to inspect forest users' compliance with fire safety terms of lease agreements and the governors to tighten control of public abidance by forest safety regulations.

Vladimir Putin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues,

As you know, European Russia continues to suffer from weather that is too hot for our climate zone. Forecasters do not rule out temperatures of 35 C and 40 C in some regions in central Russia.

This means that the threat of forest and peat fires is very high. Several hundred new fires have been registered, including dozens of large fires. So we should continue to pay close attention to preventing and fighting fires and eliminating their effects.

Connected to this, I would like to ask you to do the following.

It is necessary to do everything possible to effectively fight this disaster. People and vehicles are working at the height of their abilities. We should organise some breaks for them, introduce different shifts for firefighters and rescuers, increase the number of repair teams and create sufficient reserves of fuel and other necessary materials. If it becomes necessary, we should recruit volunteers and mobilise the workforce. And, of course, those who are working against this disaster must be rewarded. I mean not only experts here but also the volunteers.

Next, protecting communities from the fires remains our main task. We will rebuild houses and replant trees anyway, but the most important thing is people's lives and health.

We must check the state of fire protection systems and equipment, organise shifts for firefighters and volunteers, quickly carry out all necessary maintenance work, and regulate the process for exchanging information, receiving and responding to signals in those areas where fire may burn homes. You know, I was in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, and people there said, "We keep calling, but they don't want to talk to us and they hang up all the time." The authorities said that this was impossible. But they did not call this number themselves! I think it is true; I trust what the people say. Such a situation occurred not because the people who get these calls are evil; they just do not know what to say and are not ready to deal with so many calls. We should gather the power and resources needed to fight this threat.

And, of course, I ask you to tighten control over people's adherence to forest safety rules: people pay too much for the irresponsible behaviour of those violating safety rules.

As you know, the government decided to allocate money for rebuilding houses and paying compensation to fire victims. I am speaking about 5 billion roubles, which will be divided between 14 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, primarily the Central and Volga Federal Districts. This is a rough figure. It will be finally determined later, after you present the relevant documents. If needed, we can increase this figure.

I would like to stress that each person who lost his or her personal property will receive 200,000 roubles in compensation - 100,000 roubles from the federal budget and 100,000 from the regional budget. In addition, 10,000 roubles should be allocated for urgent expenditures.

I would like to let you know about another decision that has been made. The Pension Fund will provide 25,000 roubles to each pensioner affected by the fires.

As I already said many times, all fire victims will get new homes. We agreed to make this happen as quickly as possible - before November 1, 2010. For this to happen, we should make a decision concerning the sole contractor, or else we will have to spend 45 days on bidding procedures.

Pursuant to the current legislation, the state of emergency allows regional authorities to make a decision on the sole contractor at their own discretion. If needed, we will make this decision at the federal level as well. I just spoke to Mr Medvedev by phone, and the president is ready to sign the appropriate documents.

I'd like to repeat that regional authorities can choose exclusive contractors and suppliers in an emergency, but the speed of rebuilding housing must not affect the quality of the work, so to avoid having to make up for construction defects later. This is why the companies that you contract - and that can take on this job - must have qualified workers, machines, experience and standard design plans - everything to fulfil this order. I'd also like to emphasise that regional authorities bear the responsibility for this project.

It's necessary to be as flexible as possible in every situation. People should have an opportunity to choose between having a new house constructed and receiving compensation. Along with that, it's necessary to ensure that all funds are used properly. We must not allow any officials, or anyone else who wants to cash in on our misfortune, to abuse this situation. The estimate for the cost of rebuilding housing will be made based on actual market prices, with the lists of those affected by fires checked thoroughly. Rascals and crooks must not be given the chance to take advantage of this situation. I'd like to remind you that two million roubles are needed to rebuild one house on average, I repeat on average, based on the market price of one square metre of housing in the region. This is in addition to one million roubles needed to restore utilities in areas that had them, including electricity and gas supply systems.

I'd like to stress that many people have lost not only all property in the fires, but also documents, passports, birth certificates, pensioner's ID cards, medical insurance cards, and certificates for housing and vehicles. People have found themselves in very difficult situations. The payment of pensions and other social benefits and rebuilding people's homes depend on the recovery of these documents. We need to personally oversee this work, which is what I'm asking you to do. We must not allow the situation to develop in a chaotic way, with people standing in lines at government offices and begging for money.

Today, I'd like to hear what measures are being taken to issue new documents. Bureaucratic delays will not be allowed here. The heads of federal agencies and regional authorities bear personal responsibility for resolving this issue.

Ultimately, in addition to emergency measures, we should consider preventive measures. To reduce the probability of such situations in the future, we need to draw up federal and regional programmes to improve fire safety in forests, ensure the proper oversight of the measures taken here and allocate additional resources as necessary.

We need to equip all state helicopters - no matter what agency they belong to - with fire-fighting equipment, organising advanced training for flight crews. This will allow us to mobilise aircraft more quickly.

In addition to this, I'm charging the Federal Agency for Forestry with checking forest land leasing contracts for compliance with fire safety regulations. Legally, when local authorities lease forest land, they transfer the responsibilities to protect it, including from fire, to a leaseholder. But where are these leaseholders? Fire protection provisions in leasing agreements sometimes turn out to be a mere formality, or leaseholders simply ignore them. But they should contribute to our firefighting efforts already today, with all their machines and equipment mobilised for this purpose.

I'd like regional leaders to inspect the sites worst affected by fires and meet with people there.

In short, here's what I'd like to hear from you today: What's the progress on controlling ongoing fires and preventing new fires? What's being done to battle residual fires? Many firefighters were involved in extinguishing them, and they used helicopters and other aircraft. But several small fires haven't been put out completely yet. I toured these areas and saw everything first hand. There are small fires everywhere. All fires must be put out. The situation is exacerbated by high temperatures and winds. We must eliminate new fires in places where we had already put them out. This is the first thing I'd like to hear about today.

Second, towns and villages. What's important here is infrastructure, primarily critical infrastructure like transport, communications, power facilities and military sites. You should interact with everyone in charge of these places. We've had enough already without fire spreading to weapons storehouses.

Moving on, I'd like to hear from you about what's being done to help people: where they have been relocated, how transport services, catering and medical services are organised, and what's being done to pay them the compensations we've been discussing with you - 10,000 roubles for current needs and 200,000 roubles for property restoration.

Finally, I'd like to know what's being done to rebuild housing. I need restoration plans and housing construction schedules for each region, town, village and house. I need the lists of those affected by fires, signed by regional leaders.

The government commission on emergencies, headed by Minister Sergei Shoigu remains in charge of the coordination of our efforts.