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Medvedev to gold debriefing on summer anti-drought campaign

The RF prime minister has given an instruction to reinforce the group of smoke jumpers and to allocate additional money for this purpose

TOMSK, August 6 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has given an instruction to reinforce the group of smoke jumpers engaged in fighting forest fires in Siberia and to allocate additional funds for this purpose. The Russian government head made this statement at a meeting with governor of the Tomsk Region Sergei Zhvachkin on Monday.

“I have specially come to your region - the epicentre of the Siberian fires,” Medvedev said at the meeting with Zhvachkin. “Now the weather is good, as if nothing had happened, but actually it is not so.”

Medvedev spoke about his impressions from the visit to the fire fighting service of the Tomsk Region: “The unit is in a very good state.” “And the situation (with forest fires) currently now looks better than in other territories where the situation is quite complicated,” Medvedev stressed, adding that “August, too, is expected to cause problems” regarding forest fires.

“It makes sense again to coordinate the positions,” the prime minister said. “After the summer campaign against drought we will also hold the final debriefing.”

The RF prime minister thanked the “professional smoke jumpers involved in the fire fighting efforts from all over Russia.” “I’ve given instructions to reinforce the group and to allocate additional money, because people are working in very difficult conditions, unfortunately, risking their lives,” Medvedev stressed.

The prime minister considers it important to work also on the formation of voluntary brigades: “They are well equipped and prepared, and we cannot cope with fires of this scale without their support,” he added.