Governors of fire-stricken regions gather in Moscow to meet Putin.

MOSCOW, August 2 (Itar-Tass) - The governors of Russia's fire-stricken
regions will gather in Moscow on Monday after their working weekend to
discuss the fire situation with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The fires have claimed 28 lives over the past few days, 1,257 houses
have been destroyed and 77 populated areas in 10 regions have been
damaged. More than 5,000 people have been evacuated from fire hazardous
areas. At the moment, forest fires are covering an area of about 120,000
hectares.
"The situation remains tense. You all know what the weather forecast
is. It's not optimistic," Putin told the governors at a meeting on
Saturday.
He demanded that during the weekend the governors visit places that
were worst hit by fires, meet the people, assess the situation and compile
the lists of homeless fire victims so as to avoid red-tape in financing
the restoration works and organize effective payment of compensation to
each person.
"I am waiting for all of you in Moscow at 14:00 on Monday to sum up
the results of the previous day and build plans for the near future," the
prime minister said on Saturday.
On Monday, Putin will hear reports of the governors of the Voronezh,
Novgorod, Samara, Moscow, Ryazan and Vladimir regions and the head of the
Republic of Mordovia.
Last Friday, Putin visited the Nizhniy Novgorod region.
On Saturday, July 31, Putin held a meeting at the Russian Ministry for
Emergency Situations.
"Our country encountered many problems in all times: the Pincenates,
the Cuman and knights tried to tore Russia to pieces, there was the Great
Patriotic War. Russia withstood and overcame everything," Putin said.
"Today, we are facing another trial. It's not of a global scale, it's
not an invasion and yet it's a trial. We will overcome it if we
consolidate our efforts and work consistently, effectively and with full
responsibility for what we do," Putin went on to say.
At the same time, the prime minister noted that not everything had
been done on time. He called for uniting efforts to organize effective
restoration of housing.
At the Monday meeting with Putin, the heads of Russian regions will
not only report on how they are fighting fires but also about their plans
for the construction of new housing. Vladimir Putin has promised that
each homeless family whose house was burnt down will either get a new one
by the end of October or receive monetary compensation worth three million
roubles. In addition to that, all fire victims will get 200,000 roubles
worth of compensation.
According to the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations, natural
fires are still threatening 200 populated localities in the Urals, Volga
and Central regions of Russia. More than 240,000 people and 25,000
equipment units have been mobilized to extinguish the fires.
In the meantime, the authorities of the Moscow region are already
starting paying material compensation to the victims of forest and peat
fires. A regional administration source told Itar-Tass that each
fire-stricken family would get 110,000 roubles from the regional budget in
addition to aid allocated from the federal budget.
"Families who have lost someone in the fires will receive 300,000
roubles from the regional budget and people suffering from burns or
injuries will get 150,000 roubles," the source went on to say.
Boris Gromov, the governor of the Moscow region, has met the residents
of two settlements - Kadanok and Mokhovoye - in the Lukhovitsky district,
which is worst hit by fires. Gromov promised them that each family that
had lost a house or an apartment would be provided with new comfortable
housing.
The authorities of the Moscow region have opened a hot telephone line
for the victims of forest and peat fires.

.Transaero air company resumes flights to Cuba.

HAVANA, August 2 (Itar-Tass) - Russian air company Transaero has
resumed flights from Moscow to Varadero in Cuba, the Cuban media reported
on Sunday.
The flights will be made twice a week on the Boeing-767 planes from
August to October. A more spacious Boeing-777 will go into operation in
November. Aeroflot is another Russian air carrier that makes regular
flights to Cuba.
According to official reports, 22,900 Russians visited Cuba in the
first six months of 2010, which is 24.9% up compared to the same period
last year. Russia has outdone Argentina by the number of tourists to Cuba
and is second only to Mexico (33,200 tourists).
Tourism is one of the main sources of revenues for the Cuban budget
apart from exports of nickel ore and biotechnological products.
More than 300,000 Cubans work in the tourist sphere. A record number
of foreign tourists (2.42 million) visited Cuba last year. However,
revenues from tourism have dwindled by 11%.

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