Global Security Newswire

Russia today said it had contained blazes that burned for days in a forest preserve near the nation's Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Aug. 13).

"The situation is stable and controllable. There are no fires on the territory of Sarov," said Igor Panshin, head of the Russian Emergency Ministry's Volga region office.

"The remnants of fires in the nature reserve southeast of its boundary have been extinguished," Panshin said in released remarks. "If the positive dynamic continues then a withdrawal of the contingent in Sarov will begin in the coming week."

The Sarov site is said to host nuclear research and weapons production operations (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Aug. 16).

The fire posed a "very real" threat to the complex earlier last week, but the conflagration has since been brought to heel, the Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom quoted its chief as saying Friday. In the remarks released Saturday, Sergei Kiriyenko vouched for the atomic site's safety after examining the surrounding area.

"The fire is constantly spreading from the Mordovia reserve and as long as it has not been put out, this risk for Sarov will remain," the official added. "The threat of fire from the Mordovia natural reserve will only be fully eliminated once protracted rains have come. Until then, we'll have to be on high alert" (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Aug. 15).

Wildfires now cover roughly 113,00 acres throughout Russia, a decrease of roughly 20,000 acres, the Emergency Ministry said. The blazes covered nearly 500,000 acres at their height.

Russian Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the suppression of official warnings about radiation risks posed by the fires, Kommersant reported.

Shoigu called for a Russian Web site to be "sorted out" after it published "false information about the fires in the Bryansk region," according to the newspaper. The area sustained radioactive contamination in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Russian officials demanded in a telephone call over the weekend that Multikhost, the firm overseeing the site, remove the disputed material (AFP I).

Despite official assertions that Bryansk fires have been handled, the region's emergency responders need additional air-based firefighting equipment, Bryansk region lawmaker and environmentalist Lyudmila Kolmogortseva told the Associated Press.

"Almost a million cubic meters of dead radioactive wood pose serious danger if the fires spread," Kolmogortseva said. "The forest is practically impenetrable, and we practically have no aviation so we'll have nothing to fight the fires if they spread" (Associated Press/Google News, Aug. 16).

The United States on Friday began sending additional gear for battling the flames to Russia, AFP reported. The U.S. equipment included large water containers, pumps, portable tools, fire suits and medical gear, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev "to express his deepest condolences for the tragic losses that Russia has suffered in the recent wildfires," the White House said in a statement Friday. More than 50 people have died in the fires.

"[The United States Agency for International Development], the Department of Defense, the U.S. Forest Service, and the state of California are mobilizing firefighting equipment and airlift to assist Russia in combating the wildfires," the release stated.

The Obama administration was "responding to Russia's request for technical assistance in combating the fires," it added. "The American people stand with the people of Russia in this difficult time."

"There are no firefighters included in the assistance and Russia did not request any," one high-level Obama administration official noted (Agence France-Presse III/Google News, Aug. 13).