MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered government ministries and the local authorities in the Far East to draw up spending proposals to fund the clear up following the catastrophic floods that have swept the region in the last few weeks, the government’s press service said Monday.
Regional authorities have been ordered to monitor food prices in stores in the flooded areas and to apply for state loans to support farmers affected by the disaster.
The Russian government is considering granting 12 billion rubles ($363 million) to the Far East flood victims to assist reconstruction, a Russian emergency services spokeswoman said Saturday. President Vladimir Putin said Saturday the government must begin payments to victims by September 10.
Putin fired Viktor Ishayev, Far East Regional Development Minister over the weekend, replacing him with former Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev, who will also take on the post of presidential plenipotentiary to the Far East region.
Several weeks of floods, said by Russian weather experts to be the worst in the region in 120 years, have affected at least 50,000 people in the Amur Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, and the Khabarovsk and Primorye territories, as well as in the Siberian republic of Yakutia, acording to Emergencies Ministry officals.
The situation is not expected to improve until at least the end of September or even October, meteorologists say.
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