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Putin to chair meeting on post-flood rehabilitation measure in Republic of Altai

The president will also meet with acting governor of the Republic of Altai Alexander Berdnikov, and acting governor of the neighbouring region - the Altai Territory - Alexander Karlin

MOSCOW, September 04 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who continues his working trip of Russian regions, on Thursday will chair a government meeting in the Republic of Altai dedicated to rehabilitation measures after last year’s heavy floods, the Kremlin press service said. 

The president will also meet with acting governor of the Republic of Altai Alexander Berdnikov, and acting governor of the neighbouring region - the Altai Territory - Alexander Karlin. Apart from that, the Russian head of state will take part in the videoconference regime in the opening ceremony of the Kosh-Agachskaya solar power station.

Post-flood rehabilitation measures in Russia’s Far East are under the president’s control. He inspected all regions affected by the last year’s heaviest floods and even saw in New Year in the Khabarovsk region with people who lived at the moment at temporary accommodation centres. In May 2014, Putin once again visited the Far East to see how flood-affected regions had spent the winter.

Assistance to people affected by those floods were raised a couple of days ago, on September 1, when the president was in Yakutsk. Putin said that the majority of those who had lost their homes in the last year’s floods were provided with new housing and ordered to finally settle this issue by the end of the current month.

Major floods of the summer and autumn of 2013 in Russia’s Far East were entered into the Russian Book of Records and the biggest one in terms of affected area - eight million square kilometers. It affected the Amur region, the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Khabarovsk Territory. More than 180,000 people were affected by the flood, with an aggregate damage exceeding 500 billion roubles (13.5 billion U.S. dollars). Water levels in Far Eastern rivers raised to record-breaking nine metres and even higher. More than 12,000 dwelling houses, about 20,000 private household and more than 400 socially important facilities were flooded. More than 32,000 people were evacuated from the flood affected areas.

Putin will stay in the Republic of Altai till Friday. On Saturday, he will visit the city of Kyzyl, the capital of the Republic of Tyva, where he will take part in festivities on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Tyva’s accession to Russia.

On Wednesday, Putin visited Mongolia. He started his trip on August 31. He visited Chelyabinsk in the Urals region, where he attended judo world championship finals. On Monday, the president visited Yakutsk, where he met with students and the faculty of the North-Eastern Federal University. Apart from that, he chaired a government meeting on state support to top-priority investment projects and territories of accelerated development in the Russian Far East and took part in the ceremony to launch the construction of the Sila Sibiri (Power of Siberia) gas pipeline intended to pump natural gas to the Russian Far East and China. His next stopover was in the Amur region, where he inspected the construction of the Vostochny space ground.