Photo Gallery Russia Burns
Vast wildfires have been burning for weeks in Russia and have already burned millions of acres of forestland, dried out peat bogs and brushland. Here, a firefighter in a region just southeast of Moscow.
Many have criticized Russian officials of having reacted slowly and inefficiently to the spreading wildfires. In response, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has staged a number of photo shoots, including this one in the cockpit of a Be-200 firefighting aircraft.
On Thursday, government officials announced that the number of fires in the immediate vicinity of Moscow had dropped by a quarter in the last 24 hours.
Fires still rage across the country, however. Here, firefighters look at a blaze in the Ryazan region southeast of Moscow late on Wednesday night.
Even as officials claim to be getting the fires under control, fears are growing that radioactivity left over from the Chernobyl disaster 24 years ago could be released by fires burning in areas contaminated by fallout. Here, a woman in the partially destroyed village of Laskovo, some 270 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
Thousands of firefighters continue battling the blazes, augmented by thousands of volunteers who have come to their aid.
Criticism of Russian authorities for their response to the fire has been loud and sharp. Many say not enough has been done to get the fires under control. Here, President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin discussing firefighting efforts last week.
Putin has made several visits to the front lines, here inspecting a forest in the Voronezh region last week.
Charred remains of the Verkhnyaya Vereya village: The settlement was ravaged by a wildfire at the end of July in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 300 km from Moscow.
Medvedev, for his part, visited an ambulance service station in Moscow. Heavy smoke in the Russian capital has caused massive health problems, with the Moscow death rate having doubled this month, according to officials.
The fires come as an unprecedented heat wave continues to grip Russia. Temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) have made life miserable in Moscow and elsewhere in the country this summer.
Moscow residents resorted to wearing masks and ventilators to protect themselves from the smoke. On Thursday, however, much of the smog had cleared.
