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
Alexander Frolov, the head of the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) told the prime minister during his visit about the comprehensive research strategy being developed for all fields of weather service and related sectors.
When Mr Putin asked about the cost of implementing the strategy, Dr Frolov said that the service needs seven million roubles a year for maintenance and another six billion to restore and develop the national network of weather stations.
The prime minister requested more details on the sum Roshydromet needs through 2030. "We will come back to this later, but we need to know now what seven billion roubles a year will be spent on. Finish up your estimates and then we'll see," he said.
Dr Frolov told Mr Putin about the history of the Tiksi Observatory since it was established in 2006, and its key research areas.
He said all observatory instruments are interconnected, with all data flowing to a single computer, from which they are transmitted to St Petersburg.
For example, the observatory monitors permafrost. Many experts fear that global warming will make the permafrost thaw, causing the soil to release the methane that is currently frozen in it, thus spurting on warming, said Dr Frolov.
When the prime minister asked him whether last winter's frosts and the exceptional heat of this summer were due to climate change, he answered: "It was the result of a combination of factors. The Arctic is getting much warmer. The temperatures observed now are the highest since weather observations began. The whole world has become warmer."
Central Russia faces greater problems as it has no mountain ranges to protect it, so cold and heat remains trapped there longer than in other places - a problem that also affects the United States and some other countries. "America has also been having problems with wildfires of late. Wildfires are constantly burning in California," Dr Frolov added.
"We don't have them as often, thank God," the prime minister said in response.
Dr Frolov said that wildfires on the scale Central Russia experienced this summer are unlikely to occur more than once a thousand years. "Not that we can expect a thousand years of calm now," he warned.
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Mr Putin also visited a Russian Geography Society exhibition at the observatory. Maria Matveyeva, the society's chief archivist, told him about the first international Arctic expedition of 1882-1884. Its tasks included making observations using the same schedule, methods and - to the extent that it was possible - instruments. The Russian Geography Society organised and coordinated the Russian contribution to the research programme. The expedition established two weather stations, including a Russian station at the mouth of the Lena River, led by Captain Jurgens.
The prime minister was shown the originals of exhibited archive documents, and he noted the elaborate handwriting in which observation records, reports and graphs were made.
