Russia lost forests with an economic value of at least USD 15 billion in the wildfires during the worst heat wave the country ever experienced.

Throughout the summer, wildfires burned in many regions of Russia. The smog hovering over Moscow and other cities in central Russia made it difficult for people in the streets to breath. In Moscow, high-rise buildings were barely discernible in the fog of smoke even from a short distance. Russian people turned to blaming the government for the apparent unpreparedness of state agencies to handle the natural disaster. 

More than 50 people died as a result of the fires. Medics say that fires might have precipitated the deaths of countless other elderly people this summer.

Fires started in July and continued through the middle of August, affecting at least 17 federal subjects of Russia. By the end of July, close to 520 wildfires spread over 188 500 hectares were raging across the Russian land at the same time. 

13 of the 24 peat fires in Russia were in the Moscow region. Visibility on roadways during the day was not more than 100 meters. Air pollution reached record level. The air quality in Moscow in parts of the city was the worst in the Moscow region, reaching four and five times the maximum allowable limit. Non-smokers were particularly vulnerable, as breathing the air in the streets of Moscow would have been tantamount to smoking three packs of cigarettes in the space of several hours. Doctors recommended everyone not to go outside and to wear special damp masks.

Consumer rights protection agencies were inundated with calls from Moscow residents complaining about the inability to breath in the city’s subway stations. The smoke reached the deepest stations, and station managers called ambulance services multiple times. Subway train operators reported that work conditions were unsafe, as they could not even see the rails stretching in front of the trains. On July 30, a driver approaching the Fili station in Moscow fainted and failed to stop the train at a red light. While the regulations provide that trains must be equipped with air-conditioning units, not all trains have them.   

During the summer, fans and air conditioners were the most popular household appliances sold in Moscow. The stock of air-blowing devices in the Russian capital has been depleted, and prices for the cooling gadgets skyrocketed, increasing nearly six times.

Home Credit Bank has reported that Russians bought on credit more than three times the number of climate-control devices in the months of June and July 2010 as last year. 

Outraged by the situation, Russian citizens have begun venting their anger at government officials. In Vladimir oblast, for example, some 290 citizens signed a petition for the President accusing the regional governor Nikolai Vinogradov of gross neglect of his duty towards the people. The petition called for the governor’s resignation.

Federal authorities have also been dissatisfied with how regional officials handled the fire danger. In early August, President Medvedev convened a special session of Russia’s Security Council, where he issued directives to the main police and law-enforcement agencies on dealing with the situation. The Russian head of state urged officials to formulate an immediate proactive response to the problem and cautioned that the actions of all state officials will be subject to a thorough review once the fire danger subsides. Even before the Security Council meeting, Prime Minister Putin called together the conference of governors, where the regional officials were criticized for their ineffective work in preventing and suppressing fires. 

President Medvedev also forced the resignation of several top naval commanders for allowing the fires to reach a naval base near Moscow. Political commentators said that the dismissal of the naval command was a public relations move by Russian authorities to preserve the reputation damaged as a consequence of untimely responses to fire hazards. According to Kremlin representatives, official criticism was imperative to give regional authorities a sense of accountability. According to other experts, such as Yevgeny Minchenko of the International Institute of Political Expertise, the policy of Dmitry Medvedev does not part ways with the usual vertical power line in Russian politics. Every time a disaster happens, high-profile government officials will be dismissed. In the situation surrounding the Russian fires, analysts have already made suggestions that the careers of several regional governors will be negatively affected by the catastrophe.        

The fire crisis also prompted an interesting Internet-messaging exchange between Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and an anonymous citizen of Tver region. The unknown blogger thoroughly described (with the use of countless four-letter expletives) the negligence of regional officials in handling the fires, complaining about the destruction of fire ponds, the reduction in fire-fighting vehicles, and the absence of even rudimentary fire danger alarms. The angry resident asked why Russia needs to develop its own Silicon Valley at Skolkovo when the country lacks the most basic fire pumps. The Russian Prime Minister responded to the criticism with the recognition of the inadequacy of the government’s response to the fires. At the same time Prime Minister Putin noted that Russia had not experienced a heat wave of comparable intensity in 140 years, and the unpreparedness of local authorities, while certainly not excused, can be partially explained by unexpected climactic changes.

Legislative experts believe that one of the greatest predicaments to fighting fires effectively in Russia is poorly-drafted fire laws. In accordance with the Russian Forest Code, extinguishing wildfires is within the exclusive competency of the regions. Within the Moscow region, forests are overseen by Rosleskhoz, the Federal Forestry Agency. Regions receive their funding for forest fire protection from the federal budget, and that line item was decreased by 15 percent in 2010. No unified state body for supervising the fire situation in all regions of Russia is currently in existence. Prior to the enactment of the current Forest Code, it was the duty of forest rangers to identify and put out fires in nearly all regions. The reform cut a number of forest ranger positions, making it impossible for the remaining group of rangers to control large areas of Russian forests.      

By the end of August, environmentalists estimated that Russia lost forests with an economic value of at least USD 15 billion in the wildfires during the worst heat wave the country ever experienced. This figure would amount to about 1 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product. According to Alexei Zimenko, general director of the Moscow-based Biodiversity Conservation Center, the “unofficial” losses could be much higher – around USD 300 billion based on the cost estimate of USD 25 000 per 1 hectare of forest lost.