“In violation of Article 51 of the Forest Code of Russia, in a number of regions, authorized bodies of state power did not properly organize measures to localize and eliminate forest fires,” the TASS quoted him as saying.
As an example, Fedosov cited the situation in the Irkutsk Region, where, due to the red tape of the Ministry of Forestry, the necessary forces were not drawn to extinguish wildfires in the region, which led to a multiple increase in the fire area.
"In the Irkutsk region, prosecutors established the facts ... reflecting inaccurate information about the fire area, the distance to populated areas, and the distortion of data on the time of fire suppression," the representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office emphasized.
According to him, district prosecutors conduct additional checks in other regions to identify the causes of the spread of wildfires, as well as assess the actions of officials.
Fedosov recalled that in the first half of 2019, the department had already identified 27.3 thousand violations of legislation in the field of forest management.
Earlier, the Emergency Situations Ministry as a possible cause of natural fires in Siberia called careless handling of fire.