Putin promises to help agriculture, avoid heat-related food shortages.

FOROS, Ukraine, July 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin said on Saturday that Russia would face no food shortages because of
the abnormally hot summer weather.
"Heat means a hard time for agriculture. Many Russian regions have
declared the state of emergency," Putin told Russian journalists after his
brief meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in Foros, the
Crimea, on July 24.
"I am absolutely confident that we will get over these hard times,"
Putin said.
"We will allocate necessary resources from the reserve fund to support
the agriculture, including direct loans and subsidies, Russian government
guarantees and the sale of feeder grain for livestock to our agricultural
producers," the Russian prime minister went on to say.
"There's an entire support package. The problem is to make the heads
of enterprises to act quickly and energetically to be able to submit
expert examination reports on the volume of the required aid," Putin said.
The prime minister confirmed that Russia wouldn't suffer any food
shortages. "Against the background of unfavourable weather conditions, we
have two favourable conditions which are the presence of financial
reserves and the existence of a grain fund," Putin concluded.