Foreign diplomats leave Moscow amid fires and smog

[denem]

Source: RiaNovosti

The worsening ecological situation in the Russian capital prompted several countries to evacuate their embassy staff from Moscow, while other states recommended their nationals to abstain from visits to Russia.

Austria, Poland and Canada have evacuated some of their non-essential embassy employees and their families, while Germany temporarily closed the embassy and the consular department, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reported...

On Saturday Moscow saw its worst air pollution in 2010, with carbon monoxide levels being 6.5 times more than maximum allowable concentrations. The concentration of other poisonous substances in the city air was nine times above the norm.

Earlier in the day, the U.S. has warned Americans to "carefully consider" the risks involved in travel to parts of Russia. The U.K. Foreign Office has also advised "against all travel to specific regions of Russia, and against all but essential travel to other specific regions of Russia."

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100808/160110777.html

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Russian authorities have also removed all explosive and radioactive material from their main nuclear production facility in Sarov. LBN: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4495367

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Wow. You gotta feel badly for those people who just can't leave.

[Bobbieo]

2. This is tragic!!!! What can one say during a disaster like this?

Those poor people and animals!

[Overseas]

3. This has been eerie to watch. Moscow over 100 for a while now.

Never thought I'd see the day. And peat bog fires.

[Overseas]

4. Link to brief overview of types of fires, including Peat Fires

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20100804/160062947.html

[chatnoir]

5. Direct consequence of Putin & Co pushing thru the new Forest Code a few years back

in order for the timber companies to profit.

Environmentalists said the consequences of the fires are so dire because a centralized woodland-fire control system was canceled by the 2007 Forest Code, a law lobbied by timber-processing companies and signed by then-President Vladimir Putin.

"Formerly, each forest had a man who would discover fires at an early stage," Alexei Yaroshenko, a forestry expert at Greenpeace Russia, told The Moscow Times.

But under the new system, the number of personnel employed in fieldwork has been cut by 75 percent, while 12,000 new bureaucrats were hired to do related office work, he said.

In addition, it may take a week to move firefighting equipment from one location to another, while it only took a day before the 2007 law went into force, he said.

"There is no central body to oversee the transfer of equipment because it was broken into several structures," he said.

More at http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/environmentalists-blame-fires-on-policies/411559.html

Environmentalists blame bureaucracy and business lobbies for the faults in the forestry legislation, which they say was aimed at milking the Russian forests for quick profits.

"This law is good for large companies with (close connections to the authorities), enabling them to quickly cut trees, make money and leave," said Alexei Yaroshenko at Greenpeace Russia.

Yaroshenko also said the new code abolished Russia's 70,000 forest guards, who used to watch over the trees and call in fire fighters to any blaze. It also made it easier to reclassify forest as lucrative development land.

Under Putin's 2000-2008 presidency, the pro-Kremlin United Russia party drafted a forest strategy aiming to exploit the nation's timber on a scale comparable to its oil and gas riches, which are the world's largest.

Environmentalists say Russia's largest timber processing firm Ilim Group was one of the main driving forces behind the new Forest Code.

More at http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/40558/20100803/opposition-says-putin-law-cripples-russia-fire-fighting.htm