Moscow smog fails to shift

The toxic smog smothering Moscow showed little sign of abating on Monday as media accused officials of covering up the scale of the disaster and the authorities raced to put out a fire near a nuclear site.

Amid Russia's worst heat wave in decades, the raging wildfires and burning peat bogs in central Russia have choked Moscow for several days and even sent plumes of smoke as far as neighboring Finland, according to AFP.

The acrid smog from the fires burning in the countryside dozens of kilometers outside the city is seeping into apartments, offices and even underground into the Moscow metro, forcing Russians to flee the city in droves.

Some 557 wildfires were still covering 174,000 hectares of land in Russia, only a slight improvement from the weekend, the emergency situations ministry said.

Armenia is also among other countries that have come to rescue by sending firefighters and equipment to Russia.

Media reports said well-off Muscovites were spending nights at air-conditioned hotels and accused authorities of covering up the true scale of the environmental disaster and smog-related deaths and illnesses.

'Authorities do not release statistics in order to conceal their incompetence,' the Kommersant daily quoted an unidentified head of an enterprise in the funerals industry as saying.

The wildfires and the smog have badly affected the market. The prices of air conditioners have soared for 6-7 times in Moscow.
People are selling masks in the underground metro stations.