Putin to attend conf on better forecasting of calamities

MOSCOW, April 5 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
is expected to visit the Veliky Novgorod region in the country's northwest
Tuesday where he will chair a conference on improving the methods of
forecasting of dangerous natural calamities.
The government press service said the participants in the conference
plan discussing a package of measures aimed at an early identification and
forecasting of, as well as alerting on the devastating natural calamities.
The measures will hopefully raise the degree of protection against the
aftermath of the calamities and reduce the material expenses.
Also, officials of the Ministry for Emergency Situations and Civil
Defense /EMERCOM/, representatives of a number of federal agencies of
powers, and regional governors will join the discussions though a
videoconference.
More specifically, the participants will look at the measures to curb
the impact of spring floods and the efforts taken by the authorities of
some regions to organize an accident-free release of floodwaters.
The list of other issues includes the efforts at all levels of state
power and administration to avert the outbreak of peat bog fires.