Russian president fires naval officials after fire at naval facility, 200 aircraft destroyed

Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting to draft and approve additional fire safety measures for strategic facilities.

In particular, the President gave the Government two days to draw up a new list of potentially dangerous sites.

Mr Medvedev also reprimanded Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, commander of Russia’s naval forces, and his first deputy, Admiral Alexander Tatarinov, for incompetence, and fired a number of senior Defence Ministry officials over the fire at a naval base in Moscow Region’s Kolomna District.

The forest fire has destroyed a large Russian naval base outside Moscow. Its occurred on July 29, but became known only on August 3. A Russian news agency, Life News, was the first to report about the incident: according to its data, 200 aircraft with the value of about $ 670 million had been reduced to ashes outside Moscow.

The situation with wild fires in Russia remains difficult. The fires have killed several dozen people and left several thousand homeless.