When mudslides razed the Kyrghyz settlement of Sogot, the Russian Emergencies Ministry sent in cargo planes with makeshift houses and tents on board, Brazhnikov recalled. Some 20,000 tons of grain was supplied to Moldova to help it cope with a recent drought. Rescuers of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan transported 17,000 tons of food for Afghan refugees along the highland road across Badakhshan. Russia's Emergencies Ministry also provided relief aid for the North Koreans following a recent devastating railroad accident near the Chinese border.
One special area of emergencies agencies' activity is the evacuation of people from high-risk zones, such as earthquake epicenters, Brazhnikov said. According to him, the emergencies ministries of CIS countries are bound together by almost fifty cooperation agreements signed both between themselves and with Western counterparts. An important place among these accords belongs to ones on joint exercises for rescue forces. Mudslide protection techniques are tested by rescuers in a training area in Kyrgyzstan; and a base in Noginsk, outside Moscow, is used for training to cope with the threat of chemical poisoning, the Russian Emergencies Minister said.
