VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
The Prime Minister responded to Federal Forestry Agency head Alexei Savinov's comment that wildfires were under control by saying: "The problem is that this kind of control cannot satisfy anyone. The situation is unacceptable." The agency "has not hit the goals we need" despite annual allocations of 20 billion roubles, Mr Putin said.
Commenting on Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov's report on the plans to irrigate peat bogs, the prime minister asked Moscow municipal authorities to join the effort. He instructed Minister of Natural Resources Yury Trutnev to monitor the wildfire situation and to keep the public fully informed.
By way of conclusion, Mr Putin called on the regional governors to closely monitor weather changes and urgently respond to them to prevent emergencies.
Transcript of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Gromov, shall we start? Please, go ahead.
Boris Gromov: Mr Putin, we have drafted a special map of the Moscow Region showing the number of peat bogs in the region.
Vladimir Putin: How many are there? What is the total area?
Boris Gromov: All in all, there are 250 different peat bogs of varying sizes with a total area of about 160,000 square metres.
Vladimir Putin: 160,000 square metres?
Boris Gromov: Yes, square metres. I'm sorry, I meant to say hectares, of course.
We have planned to irrigate and even completely flood some of these plots, based on our experience of dealing with these peat bogs over the last ten years. We'll first deal with those that are causing us the most trouble.
On this map we have marked the peat bogs that are currently being irrigated. Here's where we are now and here are these areas. We are supplying water to five districts of the Moscow Region. The areas which we are planning to irrigate this year are outlined in this colour. We have chosen those which pose the greatest threat to the region's territory, its businesses, communities and so on.
And, finally, we marked the peat bogs that we are planning to irrigate in the next two or three years. I reported to you about this plan.
This is how work is progressing. As of today, we have laid nine pipelines, including four fixed metal ones and the other are hoses. Under the plan we should have 14 pipes with a total length of about 300 km in the Moscow Region.
Vladimir Putin: Will they be fixed in place?
Boris Gromov: Yes, we are planning to lay them and keep them there for sometime until we reach our goal. But to do this, we should naturally... We are going to meet with our colleagues from the Defence Ministry, Tuesday, and will resolve all the issues on this pipeline team.
We have found people who dealt with these peat bogs in the Soviet times but they had to dry them out then. Now the goal is the opposite - to flood them using the same discarded channels.
Vladimir Putin: They did this part really well.
Boris Gromov: Yes, they did. But I do not doubt that they will also manage this situation.
Vladimir Putin: I hope so.
Boris Gromov: Besides this, we are also utilising... In the USSR we had mobile mechanised columns (MMC), which used to do this work. We found one of them in the Klin District and another in the Lukhovitsy District. I will find out later today how many columns we will have - five or six - for dealing with this problem.
In addition, to lay the pipeline faster, we have engaged teams of specialists from Mosoblgas (the Moscow Region's gas supply company) who work on laying supply pipelines. This is the right task for them.
We have a plan detailing all the districts involved, the start and end dates for the work, the number of people involved, the equipment and so on. Out of 72 peat bogs with a total area of 63,000 hectares, we are planning to flood the most dangerous 22 sections with a total area of 6,653 hectares. This takes care of my report.
But may I ask you one more question?
Vladimir Putin: Yes.
Boris Gromov: All these peat bogs are on the land that belongs to the State Forest Fund. Somehow, we must decide who is in charge. We must find someone who will manage this problem on a permanent basis.
Vladimir Putin: Fair enough, considering this land is registered with the State Forest Fund, they must have a person in charge. We'll listen now to the head of this department. What are you doing? How many people are involved in fighting peat bog fires?
Boris Gromov: About 13,000 people are involved in fighting the fires, including about 10,000 firefighters. The remaining three thousand are assisting them.
Vladimir Putin: What about equipment?
Boris Gromov: About 3,000 units of equipment - 2,800 units to be exact, if we count the reserves. In addition, there are people involved from almost every district, every enterprise. Every district is divided into sections and a specific enterprise will be in charge of a certain section throughout the state of emergency.
In this context, we have organised everything.
Vladimir Putin: I see.
Sergei Shoigu: The Moscow Region stocked up on portable fire extinguishers early enough. The people involved by the government from the Shatura District, from some enterprises - they are mostly those who are...
Vladimir Putin: I've seen them. They are also working here.
Sergei Shoigu: The second part of the work, laying pipes, is a major effort. We've planned everything. Teams of specialists inspected every section and determined where to direct the water. Everything has been taken care of.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Savinov, how is work going in your agency?
Alexei Savinov: Mr Putin, July 29 and July 30 were somewhat chaotic days. A serious fire passed through many communities, causing some confusion.
However, we managed to put out almost all these fires in three to four days. There were eight fires yesterday. Apart from the fires that are almost put out, according to Mr Gromov, new fires appear each day and cover about 24,000 hectares (59,259 acres) of the forests in the Moscow Region. I must say here that the majority of fires are in the Meshchera Lowlands. The rest of the fires in the Moscow Region are under control. We extinguish the fires on the same day they appear. Areas with peat bogs and forests on peat soil pose more problems. As soon as a fire touches a peat bog, it goes deeper, and more people are needed to extinguish it. A large group is working there: the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief, the Ministry of Defence, the regional authorities, and our forest rangers. Forest rangers put out most active fires, as a rule - there are about 400 of them here, in this group, and they use our machines.
I can say that the situation is under control. The fire has hardly proceeded any further in past few days, so we believe the situation has normalised and is under control.
Mr Putin, the only thing I would like to mention on this occasion (Mr Gromov also spoke about this problem) is that these peat bogs are hardly managed by anyone, especially the peat bogs that were used for fuel production. It is clear that they are abandoned. So, as we see, everything is interrelated, and peat bog fires and forest fires trigger each other. So we have some problems here, but I would say the situation is under control.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Savinov, the problem is no one is satisfied with this control! What kind of control is it if millions of Muscovites are suffocating with smoke? What are you controlling, I do not understand?!
Alexei Savinov: Mr Putin, I...
Vladimir Putin: I understand that the situation may be even worse. It's good that the current situation is not the worst possible, but it is still unacceptable. So what we are doing now is right: we are acting in an emergency situation, and flooding these peat bogs is a mandatory measure. So, Mr Trutnev, what damage is being done to the environment, in your opinion? We consider each tree, but it does not seem serious now that thousands of hectares of land is on fire and millions of people are choking on smoke. It is clear we should do everything to minimise the damage to the environment. But, I would like to emphasise this: this is an emergency and we should care about the people affected first of all. Nevertheless, my question to you is how peat bog irrigation is going and, second, about hazardous material and pollution. Please comment on this issue.
Yury Trutnev: First, I should say that we are felling trees together with the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief when it is necessary to save more forest area. I mean that if this work had not been done or had been done slower, much more forests would have died. As for the environment, we do not see any threat posed by irrigation here, as nature will return to its original state before drying out. In addition, our current energy strategy stipulates peat production, but is it necessary now? We have sufficient deposits of natural gas and a large-scale nuclear energy program.
I believe the restoration of a number of swamplands to their original state would benefit the environment, bringing back species that used to live there. We cannot see any environmental threats connected to this. We've already asked ecologists for advice on the matter. <....>
Vladimir Putin: So, damage was done when they were drained, right?
Yury Trutnev: Exactly, Mr Putin. Now we should get back to nature, restoring a balance. And the issue of wildfires nearing hazardous sites, including radioactive dumps or nuclear power plants: there is no danger. No dangerous pollution levels have been detected at any such site, with a 100-kilometer area monitored. As for the possibility of radioactive contamination, there's no threat of that happening at the moment. We keep monitoring the developments.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Luzhkov, we've just discussed the decision you made to provide assistance to two of Russia's regions. I appreciate it. But as the mayor of Moscow, you are responsible above all for the city and the surrounding areas. The situation here remains a complicated one. In this regard, do you think you could help the Moscow Region in any way?
Yury Luzhkov: Mr Putin, in the first few days, we worked in close cooperation with the Emergencies Ministry, and from the resources we had at our disposal in Moscow, we sent about 600 types of equipment and some 650 people to the Moscow Region and to other areas, including ones in the Volga Basin. That's my first point. This actually left Moscow more vulnerable, but still the situation was manageable. In Moscow, fire danger levels have remained steady, even more so than they are usually.
I've got several proposals to make. We need water. Water should be provided throughout the year, including in the wintertime. I will now submit the proposals we've developed to Mr Gromov. We have completely formed projects here, with economic and technical calculations. It's about the warm water that we send to the Moskva River after it goes through Lyubertsy filtration fields (it's cleaner than the water in the Moskva River, actually). We propose that that water should be pumped over here in a large amount. It should be pumped in for several years running, in summer as in winter (as it gets heated to 18 degrees Celsius). And the pipe should be a metre or even a metre-and-a-half, so that sufficient quantities can be transported. This would make it possible for the region to rapidly solve the problem of flooding.
Secondly, we should again invite experts that were once involved in setting up irrigation infrastructure here. Now the challenge will be to obstruct irrigation canals with dams preventing natural waters from flowing away. It's a very serious problem.
Thirdly, Mr Putin, there's a need (and I go along with the minister on this) to resume the operations of peat enterprises on large peat deposits. The thing is that if an enterprise is operating, no peat fires will break out on its grounds. We have quite a few examples of peat companies taking care of their own fire safety because if they don't, the staff will find themselves out of work. So both the employers and the employees make sure fire safety rules are obeyed. But peat is not a fuel that could compete with oil or natural gas. So along with restoring large peat enterprises, we should also create favourable conditions for peat producers that would level off their disadvantages compared with other producers of hydrocarbons.
These three steps could bring a systemic improvement, Mr Putin. Of these, the key one is described here, in this folder; it concerns pumping large quantities of water through pipelines. That water gets heated to 18 degrees Celsius and it can be supplied here all year round. As for its purity, it's cleaner than the Moskva River's water.
Vladimir Putin: Fine. You know, I've checked some figures and materials... We annually allocate over 20 billion roubles for the needs of the timber industry; 2.5 billion roubles for reafforestation and another 2.5 billion for extinguishing wildfires and their prevention, which adds up to 5 billion. Last year, we gave out 800 million for the region's needs, and we've allocated about 650-700 million so far this year. These are large enough amounts of money, provided that they are wisely spent. Let me emphasise once again: if spent sensibly, those funds would produce the desired results. But that hasn't happened, unfortunately.
It's true that nature has not been easy on us lately, in fact, it's been quite a challenge. Yesterday, we had a cold front pass across the northwestern part of the country, causing storm winds in the Leningrad, Pskov, and Novgorod regions. It went up there; now it's turning around and may continue on to the north. But this simply means that we must come together and start working shoulder to shoulder, fully aware of our responsibilities, and that we must act faster and more effectively. We need to work proactively, whatever other surprises nature may have in store for us.
As I watch water flowing, I wonder where public money is flowing. I've signed a government resolution (I mentioned it earlier) on the allocation of 300 million roubles to the Moscow Region. I asked you last week, Mr Gromov, to draw up a long-term plan, for two or three years ahead. It'll have to come with feasibility studies, of course. Mr Luzhkov, I'd like you to contribute as well, teaming up with colleagues from the Moscow Region to improve the environmental conditions in your city as well as in the surrounding region.
I expect your agencies to continue monitoring the environmental situation in all areas, so that the public gets a clear, vivid picture of the developments we are facing.
I won't discuss the Emergencies Ministry today, as we've talked about it quite often recently - these people are doing their best. I hope they continue to do so. As I said at the previous meeting, there's still a long way to go. So hard work is what I expect of the timber industry as well.
We'll take up the issue in the next few days, as it remains a complicated and significant problem. That's all for today. Thank you.
* * *
In videoconference format:
Andrei Keller: I'm Andrei Keller, head of the Shatura District. Mr Putin, if we have a little time, I would like to report to you on the situation. We have begun irrigation work in the Shatura District. And, perhaps, it would be more appropriate - we have six live cameras here. What will I tell you? You'll see it with your own eyes, and I'll just comment on it a little bit.
Vladimir Putin: All right. Go ahead.
Andrei Keller: The Emergencies and Defence Ministries currently have five pipelines installed in our district. Two of these are 10 km long, one is 2.8 km long, another is 1.7 km and the last one is approximately 1.5 km long.
We deliver 11,500 cubic metres of water a day for irrigation. First of all, the Polya River allows us to complete the tasks set on Wednesday at the meeting. Mr Sergei Shoigu was with us, and Georgy Poltavchenko and Boris Gromov were too.
First, we need to supply water to the sources of the fires and if possible, provide water to fire-fighters and specialists from the forestry service.
Second, we need to repair all hydraulic and drainage systems, closures, valves and everything else before November 1 so that we can, above all, retain the floodwater in the peat fields this fall, winter and spring of next year.
As you can see on the screen, pipelines have been laid in the Shatura District. All of them are currently working. Typically, we put just two branches. You've seen the PSG-160 and we installed two PSG-240s on the Polya River. When these reach standard output, we can deliver up to 15,000 cubic meters of water per day.
Mr Putin, while the ground is dry, it absorbs everything like a sponge. However, it is clear - our canal is very close to being filled.
There are sites - and now we'll ask for the view from the next camera - that are flooded and at which water is already up to the peat extraction fields. Such fields will definitely not burn in the near future. Our challenge now is to retain this water and keep it until the spring. By the way, there are already new ditches - this is from the next camera. And then a little farther on and to the right, we should have the peat fields where the water is shallow, let's say 5-10 cm, but this is what we are working on now.
I should note that currently we have a small area, 15 hectares per day, that we're irrigating and flooding, but the moisture, as they say, dissipates. I think the effect that we can now see on the screen enables us to confidently say that in two weeks, we will have a very good result. And if possible - and I ask for the camera to show it - that's where people's money is going. There was a fire-damaged forest of approximately 70 hectares here, which had been peat fields about 20 years ago, and now it is already overgrown with trees. And we have a very good outcome: first, we flooded it, and there is no smoke, no burning or anything else. The situation is basically stable, controlled. Well, I must report that the governor reported on the situation every morning: how much water was pumped, how much was flooded and how the work is being done.
Vladimir Putin: All right. Thank you. You need to carefully react to every change that happens in nature. I mentioned this yesterday - a cold front hit several regions of Russia. I spoke with almost every governor, and I will not recount everything. One colleague said, "Everything is normal where we are." The next call I make is to the Energy Minister, and he said that 600 buildings were without power in this area. What's normal about that? This means that the situation is not under control. I want to thank you for what you have done, and I hope that you will continue to work as actively at other sites. Thank you.
