In 2006, Putin abolished forest fire protection services and put all of the forest rangers in the street. I hope that we are all educated people here and can figure out how much of Russia’s enormous territory is covered by forests, right?

So, obviously, the absence of forest fire protection services was a disaster waiting to happen. Today, fires are ravaging the forests to the East of the Urals, destroying villages, killing people, and moving towards the border with China. 

In the photo, you can see one of such villages that burned to the ground yesterday. The enormously rich Russia, however, has no money to help the victims or stop the fires. All of the resources are going into fighting the war in Ukraine.