Moscow health chief Andrei Seltsovky blamed an increase in deaths on the overwhelming heat and smog that has blanketed the country and contributed to doubling deaths in Moscow from 350 a day to 700 per day. Seltsovky also reported that the morgues were overflowing with as many as 1,300 bodies.
The smog contains concentrations of carbon monoxide and other poisonous substances that are two to three times higher than what is considered safe.
Approximately 550 blazes are burning across Russia, including 40 in the Moscow vicinity. It is considered the most intense heat wave in 130 years of record keeping.
The head of Russia’s weather service said that the heat wave could be the worst in up to 1,000 years. Daily highs have peaked at 100 degrees in a country that is used to a summer average of 75 degrees.
20 percent of the wheat crop has been destroyed and the government has been prompted to introduce a ban on grain exports for the remainder of the year.
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