The Deputy Prime Minister was thrown into the fire – Newspaper Kommersant No. 154 (7355) of 08/24/2022

A special government commission created by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will coordinate the extinguishing of forest fires in Russia. The new structure was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, who instructed the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Federal Forestry Agency and other departments to calculate how many people and equipment are needed for “rigorous and efficient implementation of all priority tasks.” Meanwhile, in the Ryazan region, from where the smoke of fires reached Moscow, the area of ​​fires is only growing and has already reached 183 hectares. A commission of a similar level met in the USSR in 1972, Greenpeace Russia recalls, where they believe that the body should discuss increasing funding for the forest guard.

The Government Commission for the Elimination of Forest Fires met on August 23 for the first meeting after its institutions Mikhail Mishustin. The message of the White House states that the structure should coordinate the activities of ministries and departments; it included the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources Alexander Kozlov, deputy head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Viktor Yatsutsenko, deputy chief of the main headquarters of the ground forces of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Albert Budyshkin, deputy head of Rosleskhoz Alexei Venglinsky and other officials, including from Moscow and the Moscow region, Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan regions. The body was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko.

On Tuesday, Mr. Grigorenko instructed the departments “by the end of the day” to prepare a “set of information” on the fire situation in problem regions, and by the next meeting of the commission – “to submit proposals for the required amount of human and technical resources for the rigorous and effective implementation of all priority tasks.” The date of the next meeting of the commission does not appear on the government’s website. However, Deputy Prime Minister Grigorenko promised that the meetings would take place “until the situation in the most problematic regions stabilizes.”

Due to the heat and lack of rain in the Central Federal District formed extremely flammable environment. In the Ryazan region, forest fires began on August 7.

By August 17, the smoke from them reached Moscow: residents in different parts of the city began to complain about the smell of burning, ash deposits and smog. The city authorities sent equipment to the neighboring region to extinguish fires, and investigators from the Ministry of Emergency Situations opened a criminal case on the fact of two forest fires in the Ryazan region. Representatives of local authorities were suspected of concealing the real scale of the disaster, and the Prosecutor General’s Office joined in assessing the circumstances of the occurrence of natural fires. On August 22, an emergency mode was introduced in the Ryazan region due to fires.

In the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation reportedthat the area of ​​active fires in the region by August 23 had grown to 183 hectares, and their extinguishing “is complicated by hot weather and wind with gusts of up to 10 m / s.”

At the same time, the grouping of fire fighting forces and equipment was increased to more than 9.2 thousand people and 1.7 thousand pieces of equipment (17 aircraft performed 2.4 thousand discharges, dropping 15 thousand tons of water). Forests are also burning in neighboring regions. So, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the area of ​​​​fires has grown to 6.8 thousand hectares, in Mari El, the fire is localized on 700 hectares, the source said. TASS in emergency services. A forest fire on 29 hectares was also recorded in the Ivanovo region near the village of Osokovo. Mosecomonitoring expects an increase in the concentration of harmful substances in the air of the capital on the night of Wednesday, August 24, and in the morning of the same day.

Grigory Kuksin, head of the Greenpeace Russia firefighting program, says that the last time a similar government commission met was in 1972 in the USSR by a “special decree.”

“Then it was much harder and worse, many settlements burned down, smoke went to Moscow. But there was a different country and a much more efficient system for managing and fighting fires,” says Mr. Kuksin. According to him, the 1972 commission dealt with “the problems of all fires”, while the current body focuses only on forest fires. The expert explains that the authorities practically do not pay attention to fires on industrial and agricultural lands, while in the Ivanovo and Vladimir regions, fires are located precisely in such areas. In addition, Mr. Kuksin draws attention to “the big bias towards the Ministry of Emergency Situations.”

“Now the transfer of forest fire extinguishing functions to this department, including the federal forest guard, is being actively discussed. This will be a big mistake, because the Ministry of Emergency Situations has never dealt with forest fires. It’s like foresters start putting out skyscrapers and shopping malls,” the expert argues. “The grouping on the Ryazan fire is not very effective, because “it is in many respects a column of watering machines,” which is waiting for the fire to approach in order to flood it. The foresters would instead “burn themselves out” from the road and put out the fire, but the city firefighters do not understand these technologies, ”Greenpeace Russia complains. In this regard, it would be great for the government commission to come to the conclusion that the forest protection is underfunded, says Mr. Kuksin. “Instead, the idea is that since they can’t cope, let’s transfer their powers to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. But giving authority to a non-core department is not a very good idea,” he believes.

Alexander Voronov