EU belooft €90.000 aan Rusland voor hulp bij bosbranden (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has granted the modest sum of €89,589 to help Russia cope with fallout from wildfires, which are estimated to have done €12 billion of damage.
The commission's delegation in Moscow said in a press release on Wednesday (18 August) the money will be used by the Red Cross to buy blankets, detergents, disposable dishes, hygiene kits and food parcels for 1,700 families in rural areas in the Voronezh, Belgorod, Ivanovo, Kirov, Nizhniy Novgorod and Moscow regions.
A Moscow-based EU official told this website that the EU grant will feed into a wider international fund for the Red Cross effort and that the sum was specifically requested by the charity.
A commission spokesman in Brussels said the money will also be used to fund rest trips for children and firefighters to countries outside Russia.
"I can assure you that the help is very welcome," he said, when asked by EUobserver why the amount is so small next to conventional EU aid grants, which are counted in the millions of euros.
Aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva i on Wednesday said Russia has relied on bilateral help from EU states rather than triggering EU mechanisms, naming Italy, France, Bulgaria and Poland as countries which sent planes and firemen to the combat the fires.
"[Russian emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu] encouraged the EU to help on the soft side, to provide places for kids and for firefighters, which I did following his request," she said.
The Russian fires appear to be abating as cooler weather systems move in over the vast country.
"There is smoke on the outskirts of Moscow this morning. But it's not from the fires. It's some different kind of smoke," the contact at the EU mission in the Russian capital said.
Russian officials have begun counting the economic damage of the disaster, with early figures indicating that they will reduce Russia's 2010 GDP figures by around €12 billion, according to Reuters.