Related: Heat is on in Russia
Fanning the Flames in Russia
You can stop doing that now.
"Russian wildfires out of control, official says" by Associated Press | August 4, 2010
KADANOK, Russia — Some of the devastating wildfires sweeping western Russia are out of control, Russia’s emergency chief said yesterday, as fears grew that there were not enough firefighters to battle them.
Tens of thousands of troops and volunteers were helping some 10,000 firefighters battle blazes in more than a dozen western Russian provinces, seven of which were under a state of emergency....
The blazes, coming after weeks of record-breaking heat and practically no rainfall, have killed 40 people and destroyed nearly 2,000 residences.
The fires also leaped into a military base near Moscow, destroying the headquarters building and 13 buildings containing unspecified aviation equipment, the federal Investigative Committee said yesterday. The fire at the base was reported last week, but the statement was the first official confirmation.So the AmeriKan MSM had to wait for Russian confirmation?
--more--"
"Medvedev fires Navy brass over fire response" by Bloomberg News | August 5, 2010
MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia fired senior navy officers for criminal negligence in the destruction of a base near Moscow by wildfires that have killed 48 people across the country to date.
The aviation supply base near Kolomna, 62 miles southwest of Moscow, burned on July 29, destroying the headquarters, 13 warehouses, and 17 parking lots with vehicles, according to the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The officers in charge of the base failed to perform their duties when a fire that was spreading rather slowly wasn’t contained, and the base leaders were nowhere to be found, Medvedev said at a government meeting in Moscow yesterday.
Firefighters are battling 520 blazes covering 728 square miles, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. Since the start of the fire season, 1.6 million acres have burned and more than 170,000 emergency personnel have been deployed, the ministry said.
Record heat and drought continue to plague central Russia, making it impossible for emergency crews to prevent hundreds of new blazes daily.
“The weather gives us no chance,’’ said Vladimir Stepanov, head of the Emergency Situations Ministry’s crisis center in Moscow. “The forecast for the next few days is unfavorable, so we’re continuing to deploy more personnel.’’
You know, if you were sitting in the capitals of USrael and were preparing an attack on Iran you couldn't ask for more fortuitous conditions: Russia's battling out-of-control fires while China and Pakistan are dealing with paralyzing floods.
Who is going to be able to help Iran?
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom Corp., Russia’s nuclear power company, said fires raging near Sarov in the Nizhny Novgorod region pose no threat to a federal nuclear center located there, Interfax reported. All radioactive materials have been removed from the facility, the news service reported.
I sure as hell hope so.
Related: Russian fires pose nuclear radiation danger
What do you know, another government and MSM lie.
The state Hydrometeorological Center forecasts high or extreme fire danger in western and central Russia, the Ural Mountains, and parts of western Siberia through at least through tomorrow.
Moscow, like many cities in central Russia yesterday, was blanketed in a smoke haze from peat-bog and forest fires outside the city, causing some early-morning delays at Domodedovo Airport.
Gennady Onishchenko, the country’s public health chief, advised Russians to stay indoors as much as possible and to wear masks when they venture out, because the smoke was far worse yesterday than Tuesday.
Russia’s worst drought in at least 50 years will continue this month and threaten more crops and grain sowings, the Hydrometeorological Center said.
--more--"
Let's pick it up there:
"Amid fires and drought, Russia bans grain exports" by Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post | August 6, 2010
Russia said yesterday that it will ban grain exports for the remainder of the year after a severe drought and wildfires destroyed one-fifth of its crop and forced the country to draw from emergency reserves.
The news of an export ban from one of the world’s largest grain exporters sent wheat prices — trading at a two-year high — soaring....
In his announcement at a Cabinet meeting in Moscow, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said he would decide whether to extend the ban into 2011 after this year’s harvest.
Amazing how some people care more about their own nation than Israel, 'eh, Americans?
Grain prices are also being affected by unusual weather in other parts of the world.
Heavy rains destroyed much of Canada’s wheat crop, and the country is forecasting a 35 percent drop in production. China’s worst floods in more than a decade are predicted to cut the production of rice by 5 percent to 7 percent. China produces about one-third of the world’s rice....
Then we are looking at MASSIVE FAMINE the WORLD OVER!
The United States is one of the only bright spots for grain farmers.
Related: Food stamp use hit record 40.8m in May
Don't we need that food, Americans?
The US Agriculture Department is forecasting a surplus of about 1 billion bushels, and the shortage in the rest of the world means a larger profit margin for the industry this season.
Now you know why you go hungry, Americans.
The countryside in western Russian, suffering from the nation’s hottest summer since records started being kept 130 years ago, is now battling wildfires that have engulfed more than 484,000 acres and are continuing to spread....
--more--"
