Russia, Kazakhstan fight floods as Putin ally says officials should have done better
Petropavlosk, Kazakhstan Reuters Kazakhstan’s President described floods across the north of the country as a national disaster on Tuesday and ordered his government to free up funds for relief efforts by cutting spending elsewhere. In Russia, also hit by the worse floods in living memory, a top ally of President Vladimir Putin said regional authorities […]
Russia and Kazakhstan battle record floods as rivers rise further
Orenburg, Russia Reuters The Russian city of Orenburg battled rising water levels on Thursday after major rivers across Russia and Kazakhstan burst their banks in the worst flooding seen in the areas in nearly a century. The deluge of melt water has forced over 120,000 people from their homes in Russia’s Ural Mountains, Siberia and […]
Swathes of Siberia freeze in temperatures below -58 Celsius
Yakutsk, Russia Reuters Arctic weather enfolded swathes of Russia on Tuesday, with temperatures in the wilds of Siberia falling to minus 58 degrees Celsius. Yakutsk, one of the world’s coldest cities which lies some 5,000 kilometres east of Moscow, was covered in freezing clouds and fog, drone footage showed. Pedestrians walk along a street on […]
Temperatures in Siberia dip to minus 56 Celsius as record snow blankets Moscow
Moscow, RussiaReuters Temperatures in parts of Siberia plummeted to minus 56 degrees Celsius on Monday while blizzards blanketed Moscow in record snowfall and disrupted flights as winter weather swept across Russia. In the Sakha Republic, located in the north-eastern part of Siberia and home to Yakutsk, one of the world’s coldest cities, temperatures fell below […]
“They are taking everyone”: In poor, rural Buryatia, Russia’s partial mobilisation hits hard
FELIX LIGHT, of Reuters, reports from Buryatia, a mostly rural region wrapped around the southern shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia…
Complaints about Russia’s chaotic mobilisation grow louder
Moscow, RussiaReuters The strongly pro-Kremlin editor of Russia’s state-run RT news channel expressed anger on Saturday that enlistment officers were sending call-up papers to the wrong men, as frustration about a military mobilisation grew. Wednesday’s announcement of Russia’s first public mobilisation since World War Two, to shore up its faltering Ukraine war, has triggered a […]
Extreme wildfires are here to stay – and multiply
London, UKReuters Indonesia’s peatlands, California’s forests, and, now, vast swathes of Argentine wetland have all been ravaged by extreme wildfires, heralding a fiery future and the dire need to prevent it. With climate change triggering droughts and farmers clearing forests, the number of extreme wildfires is expected to increase 30 per cent within the next […]
Death toll in Russian mine tragedy jumps past 50
Moscow, RussiaReuters A gas leak in a Siberian coal mine killed at least 52 people on Thursday, Russian news agencies said, including six rescuers who were sent down to try to bring out dozens of men in what was one of Russia’s worst mining disasters since Soviet times. The regional Investigative Committee said three people, […]
Russia’s remote permafrost thaws, threatening homes and infrastructure
Churapcha, Russia Reuters The old airport in the Siberian settlement of Churapcha has been unusable for years, its runway transformed into a swampy field of puffed-up mounds and reliefs. Like cities and towns across northern and north-eastern Russia, Churapcha is suffering the consequence of climate change thawing the permafrost on which everything is built. “There isn’t […]