OREANDA-NEWS. September 13, 2012. Vladimir Putin held a meeting on disaster relief following a flood in the Krasnodar Territory.

Issues discussed included the implementation of Executive Order On Disaster Relief Measures Following the Flood in the Krasnodar Territory, signed on the basis of President’s working trip to Krymsk. The executive order provides for social support measures for those affected and the families of those killed, and sets out instructions to relevant ministries and agencies to improve the security and public warning systems in cases of natural disasters.

The meeting also discussed the situation in the Tuapse County of the Krasnodar Territory, which was affected by floods in late August.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues,

All of you know the theme of our meeting today: the Krasnodar Territory has experienced two major natural disasters this year. There was a flood in Krymsk on July 6 and 7, which resulted in a major loss of life and was a tragedy for the whole country, and another natural disaster struck the Tuapse County on August 21 and 22.

Today I would like us to discuss the relief efforts following these disasters. Let us look in detail at the situation in Krymsk and analyse the operational information from different agencies, the region’s authorities and the Presidential Control Directorate, which also took part in the effort.

First, I would like to hear your reports on the measures set out in Executive Order No. 1015, which was issued after my trip to the region. First of all, I'm interested in the compensation payments to the people who are entitled to them, how much money has been paid out, to how many people, and what problems have come up. I will not cite all the figures as they are well known and have been repeated many times. The question is not the figures, which we have decided on long ago; the question is how to implement that decision, and how the payment of compensation is progressing.

There are some questions and problems with the people who had lived in the disaster area permanently but were not formally registered at their place of residence. Such cases will be resolved in court, and the people have been informed. As of September 10, 11,614 lawsuits have been satisfied. That means the court has recognised that although these people had no registration, they lived in the area permanently. The courts dismissed the 205 claims. I want to draw your attention to the fact that about 6,000 people, or to be more precise, 5,913 people are still waiting for a court decision. I want to appeal to the courts to expedite the review of these cases.

The same goes for the major repairs. We are to monitor progress in this area very carefully. We agreed that the people who lost their homes would be granted new housing no later than mid-November, either houses or flats. Repairs must be completed by the same dates. The Defence Ministry has already provided 546 flats in a military settlement, in the village of Moldavanskoye; the construction of four residential blocks is underway in Krymsk.

It is extremely important that all of this work is completed on schedule and the quality of construction is high. The work should be evaluated in cooperation with the residents. That is why I supported the efforts of the Public Control Committee in Krymsk from the outset and I hope that it will take part in assessing the quality of construction in the residential houses.

I would like to note that the people who will be granted new houses and flats will retain the ownership of the land under their previous homes.

There is one figure I would like to remind you about. We agreed that people will receive funding for capital repairs based on the rate of 5,000 rubles [USD160] per square metre. Well, according to the information supplied by the Control Directorate and other agencies, there are some problems in this area.

It has been two months since the tragedy, but to the best of my knowledge the capital repairs are only just starting. Half of the buildings that qualify for capital repairs have not made a start yet. I ask the Krasnodar Territory Governor to report in detail on the reasons for this, the measures that the regional authorities, together with the federal if necessary, need to take in order to change this, so that the work picks up speed.

Next. As we agreed, all schools in the Krymsk County opened their doors to students on September 1. I want to thank all of you for that, starting with the Governor because the regional authorities did everything in their power to achieve this result. Now, we must complete the construction and repairs of other public facilities and transportation infrastructure in a very short time. That is an extremely important task that must be kept under constant control. This fully applies to those areas where people will receive new homes so that we don’t end up with the situations that the people move into their houses or apartments but there are no kindergartens, shops or healthcare centres in the vicinity. Social infrastructure is essential: we must rebuild what has been damaged and build new facilities.

I would also like to say a few words about humanitarian aid. The region has received around 900 million rubles [about USD29 million] just from the Red Cross. These funds were used to acquire basic necessities for the victims, they are purchasing home appliances, refrigerators, washing machines, cookers, heaters, and the like, including 40,000 rubles in assistance to the people whose vehicles were damaged in the flood. This issue was raised separately by the locals, as you will remember.

I want to remind you that we have agreed to entrust Krasnodar Territory Governor Alexander Tkachev with responsibility for the use of these funds. I ask you to keep this under strict control, and I also ask the public to do so through the Public Control Committee. It is very important to make sure that there is no corruption, that nobody gets to line his pockets and the funding reaches the people who need it.

The next issue is to help small and medium-sized businesses, a large number of which were seriously affected. We agreed and it was decided to issue subsidies and microloans. To date, 768 small and medium-sized businesses have received subsidies totalling over 176 million rubles, and 148 small businesses have been issued microloans amounting to over 102 million rubles. We must monitor this process and help people to restore their businesses.

Last, but not least, are all the measures we planned together with regional and federal authorities, in collaboration with scientists who can help us: all the measures to prevent similar tragedies in the future. This includes the construction of the necessary facilities, cleaning the riverbeds, and so on. Let us discuss all of these topics in detail.