While a cold front that started Aug. 19 has ended the two-month
heat wave in Russia, the heat had caused wildfires to rage through a region
east of Moscow, and the city itself was covered in smog that caused a severe
health crisis.
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The smog forced Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to evacuate his
office. But it is not the privileged Russian politicians who have felt the
heat. Ordinary citizens and workers have experienced the worst of the crisis.
One doctor from a Moscow hospital said: “It is a disaster. There is no air
conditioning in the hospital … smog is penetrating everywhere. Each day, 16 to 17
people die. The morgue is full.”
Not only was Moscow experiencing an extensive heat wave, but
the citizens had to confront the constant presence of smog from the wildfires.
Many resorted to wearing masks, even on the underground railway. Life in Moscow
became intolerable for thousands of people.
While the smog hung over Moscow, 1,000 people lost their
homes and property in wildfires 200 miles east, in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
At least 36 people, many of them children, lost their lives in the fires, which
spread over 469,000 acres of forest. The drought accompanying the heat wave
destroyed one- third of Russia’s wheat crop.
The climate crisis has affected weather across the globe.
Unfettered capitalist destruction, misnamed “economic growth” in the corporate
media, is at the root of the environmental crisis. In Russia, the results of
the climate crisis are aggravating a much deeper crisis caused by the overthrow
of socialism.
In the last 20 years, capitalists in Russia have tried to
dismantle what was previously a socialist state that provided extensive social
services. Institutions like fire services and public health care are among
these services. Experts blame the current unstoppable rash of wildfires, for
example, on a 2007 law that cut 90 percent of forest guards.
Capitalism is a system under which a tiny minority exploits
people and resources for their own benefit. In Russia, the imposition of
capitalism has destroyed public education, health care and housing. The people
have experienced a dramatic rise in alcoholism and mental health issues,
disease and other indicators related to higher poverty levels. Likewise, the
Russian people are left to fend for themselves against environmental threats
that could easily be resolved if the services existed.
