Answering the President's question about the recent flood, Vasily Orlov said the water had subsided, but the flood had caused damage to the roads and the local farmland. At the same time, the region was prepared for more dramatic consequences: an Emergencies Ministry regional search and rescue team was deployed. They were prepared for evacuations, but fortunately, this was not required. Road damage is estimated at about 500 million roubles; agriculture related damage is estimated at 1.4 billion. The regional authorities are working with the relevant federal ministries to arrange compensation measures.
According to Mr Orlov, two issues remain acute in Amur Region. One is moving people out of dilapidated and dangerous housing; the other is the affordability of air travel. The regional head said many people have not yet been moved out of dilapidated and hazardous housing, and asked the President to instruct the Government to see if it could assist in some way, as the regional government does not have the resources to complete this task.
The second problem is affordable flights –airfares are very high. Of the 171 subsidised flights in the Russian Federation, only one reaches Amur Region – the Tynda-Khabarovsk flight. Mr Orlov asked the President to support several more air routes that are important to the region. These include flights from Blagoveshchensk to Yekaterinburg and from Blagoveshchensk to Novosibirsk, as well as several regional Far Eastern flights: Blagoveshchensk-Yakutsk, Blagoveshchensk-Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk-Vladivostok and Blagoveshchensk-Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Vladimir Putin noted that such remote towns certainly need support, and that the Ministry of Transport and the Government would be given appropriate instructions.