Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s use of webcams to follow the reconstruction effort following the Russian wildfire crisis has been met with controversy. Putin ordered that the webcams broadcast on his website, and at his home and office. While the webcams were set up to show the rebuilding of homes, they initially only showed fields.
Webcams have been used to great effect to let the general public see up-to-date pictures of events. The oil spill webcam in the Gulf of Mexico is a fantastic example. It seems Putin intended to use webcams to show that the wildfires were under control, but the slow start to the reconstruction effort meant the webcams didn’t have had the desired effect at the outset.
The broadcasting of fields rather than reconstruction started a war of words between Deputy Regional Development Minister Konstantin Korolevsky and the communications ministry (that was responsible for setting up the webcams). Korolevsky said he has ordered that the webcams be “pointed at where work is actually going on and not simply at the field opposite these objects”. A communication ministry official responded by saying that “the telecoms experts have carried out their work much quicker than the time it took the regional development ministry to start reconstruction work,” and that “all the cameras will be pointed at the building sites once work actually starts.”
The Russian media has been criticised generally for the lack of information about the wildfires as they were occurring. George Bovet of the Moscow Times criticised the Russian government, claiming that the response to the wildfire crisis was similar to the response to the Chernobyl explosion, in which to prevent panic, thousands were unnecessarily exposed to nuclear radiation.
It seems that the reconstruction has started in earnest now, with the webcams now serving their purpose. You can watch the Russian wildfire rebuilding effort on webcams on Putin’s website. You can also check Wikipedia for more details on the 2010 wildfires in Russia.
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