Emergencies Minister: Spring flood not caused serious losses

Russian Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu is satisfied with the anti-flood measures taken this year in the country.

"For the first time in many years the spring flood has caused no serious losses. As a whole, the Russian flood water systems worked this time as good as never before," said the Emergencies Minister at the news conference on Friday.

Sergei Shoigu pointed out that in his opinion the his ministry's criticism addressed to the administrations at different levels had a favourable effect. In sixty percent of the subjects of the Federation the heads of the administrations "have taken unprecedented measures to prevent grave consequences of the spring flood," noted the minister. He also spoke about the allocation of sufficient financial means from the regional budgets, and about the preventive concentration of manpower and machinery in the most dangerous places.

Apart from that, according to Shoigu, many administrations in the south west of the country, in Siberia and in the Russian Far East have doubled the number of the flood posts and are purchasing flood control stations.