"Unprecedented": Vladimir Putin Alarmed Over Natural Disasters In Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on officials to calculate the effects of the fires and make plans to reconstruct houses.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said the scale of natural disasters that have hit Russia this year has been "absolutely unprecedented". Speaking at a video conference with officials on the effects of Siberia's record-setting forest fires, he said it was "important" to work on the climate agenda "systematically." While Siberia sees an annual wildfire season each summer, the fires have burned with an increasing intensity in recent years, which Russian weather officials and environmentalists have linked to climate change. The leaders of Siberian regions affected by the fires, as well as of a southern Russian region affected by floods, took part in the conference.