Paul Goble
Staunton, July 7 – Every year, Russia faces an enormous number of forest fires and needs thousands of firefighters to prevent them from spreading. That challenge has been made more difficult because of the fire fighters’ low salaries and the bonuses given to those who serve in Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Now, in another revival of a Soviet-era practice, the Russian government is seeking Duma approval for a law that will allow the authorities to have thousands of soldiers to be dispatched to fight major fires (vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2026/07/07/1211664-soldat-srochnikov-otpravyat-v-pozharnie-chasti).
As of now, the emergency services ministry has been able to use military personnel to fight fires only when the fires affect closed areas, although there is evidence that since last year, the authorities have exceeded their legal writ and been extending such programs to allow military personnel to fight fires elsewhere as well.
The fact that the government is now seeking to legalize and thus extend this practice is yet another example of how Putin’s war in Ukraine has distorted the Russian economy and how the Kremlin, instead of recognizing that, is taking measures like this one to put that country on a war footing for the future in unexpected places.
The emergency services ministry has not yet said how many soldiers it will seek to use; but this program will certainly take enough to further complicate Moscow’s task of finding enough men to fill the rapidly depleted ranks of its military units now fighting in Putin’s war.
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