The Kremlin warned that floodwaters were yet to peak in several regions of the country, as tens of thousands of people in southern Russia and neighboring Kazakhstan were hit by one of the worst floods in decades after unusually high temperatures melted snow faster than usual.
More than 10,000 homes have already been flooded by water flowing from the Ural Mountains and Siberia, and thousands of people are at risk, local officials say.
Several regions in both countries have declared a state of emergency as officials try to coordinate a response.
“Difficult days are still ahead,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday. “A lot of water is coming”.
Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin held telephone conversations with his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev about joint efforts to deal with the disaster.
“During the talks, the close cooperation of the respective agencies of the two countries was emphasized, which jointly monitored and forecast the situation, presented and implemented coordination measures for responding to the situation,” the statement on the Kremlin’s website states, adding that “the leaders of the two countries agreed to intensify rescue efforts”.
In Russia, the worst floods were in the Orenburg region, where the local dam in the city of Orsk burst three times since April 5th.
Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Putin currently has no plans to visit the Orenburg region, noting that the president “takes care of the issue” even when he is not on site, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
