Vladimir Putin calls for Volga environment protection

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to budget finances for implementation of large-scale ecological project on the Volga environment protection. The President gave a relevant order to the government, RIA Novosti informs.
According to the head of state, the damage caused to the largest country’s waterway for a long period of time must be liquidated. Moreover, the Volga water resources should be used very carefully from now on.

Vladimir Putin considers this question as very important for millions of Russians. He has noted that authorities started to make steps towards improvement of environmental situation of the river. In particular, The Volga Recovery project has been approved. The main goal of the project is to decrease polluted water wastes by ten times. Moreover, the most dangerous objects of the accumulated environmental harm should be liquidated while biological variety of species and unique ecosystem of Volgo-Akhtubinsk bottomland and the Volga river delta should be preserved.

4,3 billion US dollars are budgeted for this project implementation until 2015. Around 2 billion US dollars will be allocated from the Federal budget.

The Volga is one of the largest rivers on Earth and the longest one in Europe. Its length is more than three and a half thousand kilometers. Four cities with population exceeding a million people are situated along the river; they are Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara and Volgograd.

Russkiy Mir